Outdoors: Whitefish a winter delight on Green Bay.
Native species a star winter attraction
Sturgeon Bay — When Bret Alexander of Green Bay and I met at 0-dark-thirty Wednesday along the shore of Green Bay, his only question focused on the world above the ice.
Ol’ Man Winter raced through Door County with a vengeance the previous night, lashing the landscape with 40-mph winds.
It’s the kind of weather that can rearrange a village, especially a seasonal shanty town.
Alexander wondered how his ice fishing structures fared in the storm.
The answer emerged as dawn’s first light brightened the hard-water expanse: All the shacks were upright and in the same spots he left them.
The veteran fishing guide had no doubt what we’d find beneath the ice.
“The fish are here,” Alexander said. “Plenty of them, too.”
The subject of our conversation was lake whitefish, a native species that over the last decade has emerged as a star winter attraction for the Green Bay sport fishery and tourism draw for the region.
I joined a crew of anglers Wednesday on the ice southwest of Sturgeon Bay to sample the early 2017 whitefish action.
Alexander, 46, grew up in Green Bay and has fished the bay’s waters his whole life. He started Alexander’s Sport Fishing 14 years ago, primarily to guide anglers to the region’s smallmouth bass, walleye and musky from spring to late fall.
But another opportunity presented itself in recent years: The whitefish, important as a commercial species in Lake Michigan since the 1800s, began to show up in increasing numbers in Green Bay and its tributaries.
“We now have spawning runs of whitefish in Green Bay tributaries where they weren’t present for 100 years,” said Scott Hansen, a fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “This is a phenomenal success story.”
What was more, the whitefish proved to be catchable on hook-and-line.
“If I told some of the oldtimers how people were catching them today, they’d tell me to stop pulling their leg,” said commercial fisherman Charlie Henriksen of Sister Bay.
Whitefish have a downturned mouth, a feature that helps them feed on benthic, or bottom-dwelling, organisms. And the whitefish was never thought to be a fisheating species.
But over the last decade it became clear whitefish adapted to the invasion of round gobies in Lake Michigan and are now known to feed heavily on the nonnative fish.
Sport anglers began catching whitefish more often. And then began targeting them.
According to DNR records, the sport harvest of whitefish in Green Bay was 1,559 fish in 2007 but topped 115,000 in each of the last four winters.
“They’ve always been considered great eating,” Alexander said. “Now we know whitefish are sporty, too.”
To cater to the growing winter fishery, Alexander started a second business called Ice Fish Green Bay. Last year he had 1,500 ice fishing clients; 50% were from out of state, he said.
On Wednesday morning, Alexander and his assistant guides, Kyle Tokarski, 28, of Green Bay, and Zach Stadler, 21, of Suamico, escorted me about one-half mile west of shore to a group of wooden shanties.
I set up in a structure over 17 feet of water; the rocky bottom was covered with zebra and quagga mussels.
Gobies are fond of mussel-encrusted substrates. And whitefish cruise just above, looking for their next meal.
The ice was about 10 inches thick. I used a light-action spinning rod and reel to fish a sliding hook rig fashioned by Alexander. The setup had a bell sinker at the end, then three small hooks separated by knots over the last 18 inches of line. A wax worm was attached to each hook.
The hooks were able to move freely over about 6 inches of line.
When the baits were dropped to the bottom and jigged with a quick, short cadence, the whitefish had a hard time resisting.
I hooked a fish on the first drop, but lost it at the hole. As the sun began to rise, the action got increasingly better.
After 90 minutes, I had a limit of 10 whitefish on the ice. I lost at least a dozen others before I could land them and released two small ones.
The keepers were from 17 to 20 inches in length and provided thick, whitefleshed fillets.
The economic impact of the Green Bay sport fishery will be studied over the next 15 months by a UW-Whitewater professor. The work is expected to provide the first detailed look at the value of all aspects of the fishery, including ice fishing.
It’s no secret the whitefish have provided an important boost in recent years.
“Whitefish are saving the Green Bay ice fishery right now,” said David Boyarski, regional DNR fisheries manager.
In decades past, shanty towns dotted the Green Bay hard water, too. But the primary target then was yellow perch.
Times have changed. But the good news is a native fish is sustaining a vibrant sport fishery. And anglers are flocking to the bay in winter.
On many weekend days from January through March, Alexander said it’s common to see 1,000 anglers targeting whitefish on the ice over Larson’s Reef near Sturgeon Bay.
“(Whitefish) are our new perch,” Alexander said. “Nobody saw this coming 20 years ago, but it’s added a tremendous draw to the region in winter when we can really use it.”