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[troutbum]

are we talking whitefish or northern pike minnows? whitefish have an adipose fin, tiny mouth & primarily feed on invertebrates, they rarely reach sizes greater then 17". i think some may be confusing them for chub or npm's. either way its a good idea to release them all.

[Bone Cross]

The old ranger run used to be stacked with them. All you needed was to dig up a garden worm thread it on and you hit one.

[Steely]

The vedder has them but very scarce as mentioned in other posts, heck you have a better chance catching a steely then you do a whitefish (I like those odds by the way). However if you are looking for white fish the Stave has some which at times can be abundant, river mouths on the Fraser sometimes have a few but mostly NPM. If you don't mind me asking why are you looking for Whitefish when you have a better shot at trout, NPM( not at this time of year however) or salmonoids? I mean it's not like Whitefish put up a spectacular fight or grow to monstorous sizes, just like your everyday coarse fish but hey to each there own I guess. Good luck

[GENERAL-SHERMAN]

" I once watched the seining net at cultus lake for pike minnows and there were more white fish than any other species " yah thats bs because i know somebody who worked on cultas lake netting and they rarely catch white fish and when they do net accidental species they release them! but if u want to look at the data there is a site somewhere on the internet that shows the cultas accidental species that are netted. on a side note vedder whitefish are best caught in months of july, august, september. the odds of getting a whitefish this time of year on the vedder is almost impossible. my guess there is there are lots upriver out of bounds and when the water levels rise before red spring season it pushes them downriver. im sure they come from the ocean as well. i use a 3 weight and heavy nymph's swung or under an indicator. usually a floating line with a 6-10 foot leader works well caught a few last year in the 14-18 inch range most of them are 10-14 inches. usually u gotta get the nymphs down near bottom like previously mentioned. have seen them come up to hit large stonefly nymphs fished 4 feet under an indy in 7-8 feet of water though. also try not to handle them at all(especially for pics) because they die very easily.

[Rodney]

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/habitat/cultus/updates-misesajour-eng.htm

This year, the purse seine boat "Pacific Fisher" started fishing for pikeminnow on May 21, 2009, crewed by Regan Birch, Rod Taylor, Dustynn Diack and Blayne Birch and Chris Good. Initial catches of adult pikeminnow are low, as of June 16 only 261 adults had been captured. Juvenile catches are better with 4,910 caught so far. A number of other fish species have captured and released alive including: 404 large scale sucker, 1134 age-1 sockeye, 1261 peamouth, 112 kokanee, 103 whitefish, 17 rainbow trout, 6 cutthroat trout, 5 residual coho, and 2 Dolly Varden.

[jetboatjim]

Such horrible baby salmon killers, we better wack them, stack them and smoke them! All salmon fishermen should do their job to eliminate all natural threats that our dear salmon face at every life stage to maximize their survival. Last year I put up a list of evil species that we need to selectively cull. Here it is again:

Humbolt squid
Salmon shark
Killer whale
Harbour seal
Sea lion
Sea otter
Sea gull
Bald eagle
Golden eagle
Black bear
Grizzly bear
River otter
Bull trout
Cutthroat trout
Rainbow trout
Northern pikeminnow
Sculpin
Lingcod
Rockfish
Pacific cod
Chub Mackerel
Jelly fish
Tuna

Do your part, otherwise there'll be no salmon left soon.
Marlin

You forgot Marco and Carlo...

[Dave]

"  im sure they come from the ocean as well

That's an interesting theory.  I used to do some lower Fraser River beach seining, looking for juvenile chinooks.  I don't recall catching whitefish below Albion but we did catch chrome bright adult Pikeminnows.  I thought at the time they may have spent some time in salt, or at least the estuary, like cutthroat.  Perhaps some RMW do the same.
Mykisscrazy has done a lot of seining in this area - perhaps he can add to this.

[Rodney]

Dave, northern pikeminnow that we encounter at the Fraser River mouth in July and August are always very silver. Same as peamouth chub and large scale sucker that we encounter in the same area. I'm interested to know how far beyond the Fraser River mouth do these three minnow species extend out.

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/video/0816.html

I'd also like to know if rocky mountain whitefish exhibit the same amphidromous behaviour, travelling out of the tributaries into the tidal portion of the Fraser River. I've never encountered one in the Steveston area but have heard of anglers catching them as downstream as Langley. Misidentifying peamouth chub, which are rather abundant in the Fraser River, as whitefish? Possibly, the two species look very alike beside the adipose fin.

[Dave]

Hi Rod.  You bet Peamouth Chub and Rocky Mountain Whitefish look alike, especially thrashing about in the bunt of a seine net.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of the "whitefish" caught as bycatch in the Pikeminnow control program on Cultus were indeed Peamouths.   

[bklem]

Such horrible baby salmon killers, we better wack them, stack them and smoke them! All salmon fishermen should do their job to eliminate all natural threats that our dear salmon face at every life stage to maximize their survival. Last year I put up a list of evil species that we need to selectively cull. Here it is again:

Humbolt squid
Salmon shark
Killer whale
Harbour seal
Sea lion
Sea otter
Sea gull
Bald eagle
Golden eagle
Black bear
Grizzly bear
River otter
Bull trout
Cutthroat trout
Rainbow trout
Northern pikeminnow
Sculpin
Lingcod
Rockfish
Pacific cod
Chub Mackerel
Jelly fish
Tuna

Do your part, otherwise there'll be no salmon left soon.
Marlin

i love a good smoked bald eagle every once in a while

[Dennis.t]

Rockey mountain white fish are very prolific in the Athabasca River in Jasper in the fall. Could not keep them off the hook.

[Rodney]

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/video/0817.html

[GENERAL-SHERMAN]

Hi Rod.  You bet Peamouth Chub and Rocky Mountain Whitefish look alike, especially thrashing about in the bunt of a seine net.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of the "whitefish" caught as bycatch in the Pikeminnow control program on Cultus were indeed Peamouths.    

peamouth chub and rmw were counted separate and peamouth are easy to distinguish at that time year because of their spawning colors and there physical attributes.  if you are insinuating a miscount you are wrong.

[Dave]

General- Sherman, only sexually mature Peamouth Chub exibit the orange stripe that readily distinguishes them from RMW.    Even then, when a single set has over 1,000 fish of various species, sizes and maturity, and when speed is imperative for processing these fish, identification mistakes were made.  In the early years of this program, Peamouths were occasionally misidentified as pikeminnows as well.
Trust me, I know this as factual as I was in charge of the field component for the first several years. 
Many Peamouth Chub are killed as pikeminnows in the annual pikeminnow derby as well.

[GENERAL-SHERMAN]

i had no idea u were involved in the program dave. your input on the program originally sounded pretty vague and uneducated. my apologies for arguing. did you work on the boat as well?