Whitefish chain

[ranger2bass]

I'm going be fishing Whitefish Chain for the first time ever Aug 8,9 in a club tournament as a non boater and would welcome any tactics and advice on how to score a decent limit quick. Im doing the Whitefish side on Sat and Cross lake side on Sun. 6am to 2pm both days. I know theres alot of water there and probobly any thing will work. Im thinking jigs and worms in clearer water and tubes and spinners in any murkier stuff. Is it got decent schools? Thanks

[Flipnripem]

I know a lot of tourny`s are won on the big part of the lake on the outside edges. Just put down the trolling motor and go. Cross Lake has some good stuff way down on the south end. Also, don`t over look the small lakes. If I remember right it`s pine.
they do hold some good ones. It`s a nice fishery. Good luck.

[Chris Haley]

Also Daggot, fish the deep weeds. In cross, there are a couple of real small islands that have great weed lines coming out from them. Fish these with a jig/worm, I prefer pumpkinseed power worms with a 1/4 oz slider jig head. Rush has great weedline fish also, right around both the islands. In the big lake, pig has a great sunken island for jig worming. Just about all the docks on whitefish have fish also. Hay has some great docks!! Arrowhead has some great pad fishing.

[catchin'whopper]

On the big lakes, i have fished numerous weedlines without bites, then have ran into 3-4 pound schools out of the blue. Now without getting specific, i can't even mention there were certain areas on exact spots on weedlines that eventually were more productive or even consistent with producing these schools, they could have been anywhere on the weedline in a given area.

I believe the fish move up and on the edges or pull out from being buried in the milfoil/coon tail mix at certain times of the day and turn on the feeding frenzy. i have seen this multiple times on the two bigger lakes, upper and lower whitefish, i guess in Pigs Bay too.

Catching the fish was typically black/blue jigs with matching craw, when one fish was caught, my partner threw into the exact same area and latches on to one, trying to keep the school hot. The action has been fast and furious when it happens, which like i said been more times than i can remember, the lake has been kind to me that way in the past.

BTW, I have not seen this type of pattern hold up as well in the other lakes of Cross and Rush Lake and Trout (Trout to me is a different story with how clear it is). Those lakes seem to be good for producing fish in various area with docks giving them up and mornign bites being important because of the ensuing boat traffic. The smaller lakes connected to Cross (Daggett, etc) get a lot of pressure, i think not worth the time for the numerous recreational fisherman and slow zones, but there are ones to be had in there. Nice to escape the wave runners too.

I suggest being patient and pre-fishing being very important for a lake of this size. I know the BASS state tournament is on here next year, i am looking forward to it again!

[This message has been edited by catchin'whopper (edited 07-23-2003).]

[Yaeger Guide]

After a week of vacation on Whitefish, I would advise working the weedlines from 8'-12'. It took this stubborn man a few days to succomb to the idea of the working the weedlines for the best chances to limit quickly. Looking back on some of these posts, I regret not working the docks on Hay - never entered Hay at all....

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God bless,
Judd Yaeger
Yaeger Guides (Twin Cities Guides) www.yaegerweb.com/guide

[ranger2bass]

Thanks for all the tips, I'll be working weedlines and midlake weed clumps in 8 to 15 or as deep as the weeds will go, probobly toss a big rattle trap to find the healthy weeds and then go back and dig them out with jigs and tubes. I like the big island on Rush Lake and the hump directly south of it. Other than that it'll be docks. I have to be extreemly efficient as Ive done no prefishing at all. Any suggestions on tube colors?

[Chris Haley]

Pumpkinseed or there used to be a color called motor oil.

[Chris Haley]

If you like the weed line in rush, give cross a try. There are a couple small islands real close together that have a great weedline. Holds a lot of quality bass, have pulled many limits off of it.