Whitefish Madness!!

[chrism]

My apologies -
Well, I saw pics from a fishing friend who was with Deeker on Saturday - and yes, those were definately whitefish. I just couldnt see the overbite on the posted pics, and that is the telltale gold standard for ID.

And I do agree with the statements about specific bodies of water growing monster fish!  I just dont think it's fair, as like Justin said, the red in Manitoba produces abnormally large cats, as do some lakes produce large 'other' species (in this case Cedar lake with Tulibee)... But that is my point - Justin, I am from Sask (still have green blood!) and I have caught channel cats in the qu'apelle river east of Katepwa - and although as the locals said one I caught  was the largest they have ever seen, a red river cat would have eaten this puppy for lunch!

 Same goes for the river systems in Manitoba - it is a true master angler if you catch a 35" cat outside of the red, and a real accomplishment! - although a cat is a cat, and a tulibee a tulibee, I agree, the MA size set for cats has increased over the years to basically make it almost impossible for someone to catch a MA outside of that (red river)system. IMHO something to consider, but in all fairness nothing can logically be done!

I did learn something from this post, which is what it is all about!
Now for my pet peeve - when will people learn that there are no 'pickeral' in Manitoba and there never has been!!!!!!  When I went to school in Calgary I fished the upper Bow a lot, and the locals there call Rocky mountain whitefish a 'Grayling"... duh...... help me..... Makes as much sense to me as going to the LC and buying a case of Blue and calling it Bud... or worse yet, going to a bomber game and calling them the Riders(no disrespect to the green machine)....

Justin - where do you fish in Sask? I spent many years fishing Last Mountain (winter)and Besnard (summer)- do you frequent any of those locations?

chrism

[lilchief]

Nice fish man!!!!!!.....lilchief

[Thriller]

Go Riders Go!!!  I'm a transplanted farmer too....

And Chris, you can call Blue Bud if you want...unless either is free, I won't be drinking them 

You make good points about species / watersheds for MA status.  If you go far enough north, you can get into pike, lake trout, and burbot easily enough.  There's still a few MA channel cats caught in the Assiniboine and tributaries, but nothing compared to Lockport north.

[SK Justin]

Same goes for the river systems in Manitoba - it is a true master angler if you catch a 35" cat outside of the red, and a real accomplishment! - although a cat is a cat, and a tulibee a tulibee, I agree, the MA size set for cats has increased over the years to basically make it almost impossible for someone to catch a MA outside of that (red river)system. IMHO something to consider, but in all fairness nothing can logically be done!

This is a point that I have brought up when people talk about increasing the minimum length for channel catfish yet again. Sure, it will cut down on the total number of MA entries for channel catfish, but that will end up making MA sized channel catfish exclusive to the Red River.

Now for my pet peeve - when will people learn that there are no 'pickeral' in Manitoba and there never has been!!!!!!  When I went to school in Calgary I fished the upper Bow a lot, and the locals there call Rocky mountain whitefish a 'Grayling"... duh...... help me.....

That bugs the hell out of me too.

Justin - where do you fish in Sask? I spent many years fishing Last Mountain (winter)and Besnard (summer)- do you frequent any of those locations?

No, I have yet to fish those waters, but I would definitely like to give Last Mountain a try. I do most of my Saskatchewan fishing in the lower Qu'appelle system (Round Lake and the Qu'appelle River). I also live near the Cutarm Reservoir which is literally only a few minutes walk from my house. These waters make up the majority of my Saskatchewan fishing. I made a trip south to Boundary Reservoir last fall for some largemouth bass - that will likely become a frequently visited location this year. I tend to fish alot more in Manitoba as I'm just as close to the many great MB Parkland waters (LOTP, Assiniboine River, Duck Mountains, etc...).

By the way, how big was the channel catfish that you caught in the Qu'appelle River? I used to fish for them alot downstream from Round Lake. That is where I caught my first channel catfish, and subsequently lead to a trip to the Red River which has now been an annual event for the past 7 or 8 years. My dad was responsible in part for the limit of two that was put on them here.