Columbia River Lake Whitefish

[Brambles]

So I got a hankering to pickle some whitefish...I've been catching mountain whitefish in the lower west arm but the size is average at best, you gotta catch a crapload in order to have enough due to there small size.

I know there are lake whitefish in the Columbia around Castlegar, which are a substantially larger species.

Seeing as they are a very seldomly targeted fish, I'm wondering if anyone knows of any wholes that they've found them schooling up in. The water is really high in the kootenay and Columbia rivers right now, so I may just have to wait as I'm doin it from shore..

any direction is appreciated...

on a disgusting note....I laid into a sucker today....and after a trip to google land...it appears guys that eat them say they are excellent, so I decided to add it to the booty and filleted it in preparation for pickling once I get enough...meat actually looks very nice.....the fish looks all kinds of disgusting however...

[tigrr]

Columbia river fish have an advisory about how much of each fish species you should eat. I can't find it but I know it exists. I think it was on a sign by the dam in Castlegar. Rainbow tasted like the smelter in Trail.

[Chuck]

Personally speaking, I wouldn't eat anything caught below the Keenleyside dam. I once ate mud sucker fish patties that some neighbors were fond of (Norwegians) and they were absolutely all right. They had a method of preparing them unknown to me. Kootenay Lake has some large whitefish in it. My biggest was 7 1/2 pounds. There is an open season on whitefish in the Lardeau river, below the Howser bridge from March 1 to April 15 when their run is on.