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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | I've just moved to the Hayward area, and am planning on fishing some lakes that have ciscos (grindstone, LCO, etc). I realized I don't know a heck of a lot about ciscos.
I searched Google a little, and didn't find a lot. Most of what I know about them has come from the few magazine articles I've read about them.
I'd be interested in reading any info people have on cisco patterns.
I know they are/can be pelagic and spend time suspended in open water, spawn in shallower water over gravel in the fall when the water is in the 40s, but I'm not sure if they typically use breaks, bottom composition changes, and structure like other fish tend to? I know they can and do suspend over expansive basins, but a lot of times they suspend over deep breaks and off structure. Seems like they can do whatever they want, and can be hard to see on a graph (easy to spook). Any ways to reasonbly predict where to find them?
Basically, looking for first hand experience or even articles about what ciscos are doing throughout the year.
Thanks,
curleytail |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Usually located away from structure in the main lake basin especially during the summer. Find areas where the phytoplankton are thick at night may tip you off to cisco location during the day! Small ciscos will “flip” all year long and stay higher in the water column than large ciscos. The way ciscos act is different in each lake. Some lakes they flip like crazy, and in others you are lucky if you see some flipping once during the year. Ciscos are always moving, and yes spook easily. If they are deeper than 10-15' though you will mark them on a graph especially while drifting.
There are a couple of tid bits.
Edited by CiscoKid 6/17/2009 6:34 AM
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| Travis, one thing we noticed last weekend were very large schools of small minnows over open water...could the cisco's "flipping" actually be ciscos chasing and eating these schools of minnows at the surface..it looked like it to us anyway...
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | BN, not sure but I doubt it. I thought I read somewhere that they don’t feed on other fish. I’m probably wrong though. The “flipping” is more of a playing thing I believe. Get the right day on the right water and you’ll see them flipping all day long without any visible bugs or minnows around. Get some muskies in the area, and you won’t see much flipping. Playtime is over! |
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| that's exactly what I was telling the guys I was fishing with..I had remembered Howie telling me how he would rather not have "flipping" going on as he thought that meant muskies were close and or on the prowl to feed..still fun to cast our pounders at the flippers!
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| last year up on Vermilion we saw ciscoes jumping out of the water (not the "flipping" but rather it looked like miniature dolphins leaping). there was a LOT of it going on scattered and moving around in the basin behind the structure we were fishing.
we discussed whether or not it could be from muskies, and i said i doubted it because i didn't think there would be that many muskies out there.
Sorno the fish biologist said that the jumping looked like classic fish flight behavior, and pointed out that every rock hump on Vermilion seems to have 6 muskies on it, so a dozen or 20 fish in that small basin wasn't many.
we tested it by turning around and firing a Weagle out at the nearest bunch of jumping ciscos...and within three pulls a muskie blew the bait out of the water.
point taken, Sorno, point taken.
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Posts: 400
Location: North/Central WI | One thing to keep in mind on cisco water is that ciscoes can vary quite a bit in size from one lake to the next. One lake I fish, an 8" cisco would be considered big. Other lakes you commonly see them 12"-14". With that being said, if you are getting lots of follows but no takers (or no action at all) on the 12"+ baits you usually throw, downsize a little. An 8" swimbait like a castaic or huddleston can be deadly on ultra-clear cisco water... |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Lambeau, from my experience a lot of ciscos flipping is bad. However, if I see one, two, or just a couple of ciscos jump (not flip) out of the water that is a different scenario completely. Generally when you see a cisco it is of the “flipping” nature and not the “jumping” nature. Difference is how far out of the water they are coming out. I also see them “porpoising” like a dolphin, and here I think they may be feeding on surface debris (larvae and sorts). I am sure you will always find exceptions to this, but it’s what I have seen in Vilas, Oneida, and Forest county lakes with cisco.
Very rarely have we cast into a group of flipping ciscos to get a hook up.
NateOz hit it on the head with size. |
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Posts: 311
Location: Ontario | We get tons of them thru the ice on Georgian Bay and Lake Nipissing. Two very different water ways and two very different style areas for each. Nip we get them walleye fishing at first ice as shallow as 12 feet over mud/sand and weeds, GB you're getting them high in the water but normally in 80 to 100 feet. You guys are seeing them chasing and eating baitfish alright..they're a vicious little predator. They go heavy on emerald shiners in the fall when they raft up and they LOVE baby perch. In winter they'll smack any laker-sized jigging bait or spoon. Off downriggers they do the same thing. Like you guys said, they climb high in the water as evening rolls along, off downriggers they'll come to 29 or 30 feet on the trout shoals in July and Aug. Once they drop, they drop. You'll have to wait for the next night to get them that high again. They jump all over little #2 Aglias with a scrap of white twister tail on the end and little Williams Wobblers. Again in the fall they'll bunch up and shift up in the water column. I don't see many 'flippers' in the fall on the section of Georgian Bay I fish most, but guys on the S end report massive, boiling schools of them. We get them flipping a lot more in the month or so after ice-out. We sure see tons on the graph at times in fall, but not like we used to. Baitfish numbers are down across the board. Cormorants feed up to 40 feet deep and have really eaten a lot of the small feed fish the last 8 or 10 years. I live on Lake Simcoe, and ciscoe have infested the lake. They were once almost wiped out from netting but they put a moratorium on them and they've exploded. They might open the season on them this winter to thin them out, or so the rumours go. We caught millions last winter jigging lakers and whitefish. On two separate days, my sonar went black inside my Fish Trap and I watched schools of them cruise by. The schools were several city blocks in length and close to fifteen feet deep and took several minutes to finally pass. What a site! (Simcoe has about the clearest, greenest water you will find anywhere in Canada) You could drop a little Rap down and get 2 or sometimes 3 to smash it at once. And they get big..I have pics on my phone with a buddy in my shack who nailed a 17"er. Where you can keep them they're great fried, baked and especially smoked. They're also my #1 pike bait thru the ice, rigged frozen. If you ever want to get someone hooked on icefishing, get out for cisco. They're really stupid and hit and fight well. Waves will come thru and it can be non-stop for a couple hours. Like the guys said, they're always, always always on the move. On Nip ten guys can sit in a semi circle jigging from 7am until about 11am and at least five will have a fish on at all times. Its fun as hell. I could easily fish the rest of my life with nothing but white, silver, purple, grey or gold in any combination on a lure. Cisco live everywhere I fish and all kinds of big fish eat them. You find a lake that has them in numbers and I think that quality of feed alone gets you a big jump on those fish over thirty five pounds. My buddy calls it the 'KFC Diet.' They're greasy, oily and super-abundant. Caught lots of lakers with cisco up to about 15" in their throats. Sometimes they can be a curse, so much feed around you're almost better getting away from it all to a spot that's close by without the bait. I think a lot of the biggest fish simply hang out on the good shoals even when no bait's present. They know it will show up.
Edited by JBush 6/17/2009 2:47 PM
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Posts: 999
| JBush are you sure they aren't Whitefish? They look very similar to a Cisco but are very aggressive towards ice fishing/jigging presentations. They are very popular lately in the bay of Green Bay off of Lake Michigan right now and display all the characteristics you have mentioned.
Mr Musky |
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Posts: 311
Location: Ontario | We ice quite a few whities every winter too. Best last winter was close to nine pounds. I guess my little schpiel above made it sound like I don't do a lot of fishing or have much experience  And you're right, they are just a tad different than a cisco Body structure (lwr jaw especially, fins too) and mouth position is totally different. Comparing the two is like a pike vs. muskie or a smallie vs. largemouth, perch vs. walleye. They're the same rough/general outline and colour pallat but up close they're totally different.
If you find a lake where the whities snap like herring inn the winter, let me know! Your game has to be a lot tighter to be a good whiteifsh fisherman, trust me. If you can operate an UL spinning combo you can be a cisco pro, its that simple. Comparing the two is like being good at walleyes or being good at perch. Two vastly different games.
Edited by JBush 6/18/2009 3:53 AM
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Posts: 699
Location: Hugo, MN | I'm sure Sorno was modest in his victory though.
lambeau - 6/17/2009 7:20 PM
last year up on Vermilion we saw ciscoes jumping out of the water (not the "flipping" but rather it looked like miniature dolphins leaping). there was a LOT of it going on scattered and moving around in the basin behind the structure we were fishing.
we discussed whether or not it could be from muskies, and i said i doubted it because i didn't think there would be that many muskies out there.
Sorno the fish biologist said that the jumping looked like classic fish flight behavior, and pointed out that every rock hump on Vermilion seems to have 6 muskies on it, so a dozen or 20 fish in that small basin wasn't many.
we tested it by turning around and firing a Weagle out at the nearest bunch of jumping ciscos...and within three pulls a muskie blew the bait out of the water.
point taken, Sorno, point taken.
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | Thanks for the advice guys. I'll do my best to put it to good use. I have been out a little and still haven't seen too much sign of ciscos, but I'll keep looking! Did see some fish that looked like they were getting chased/jumping out of the water, but it was late enough in the evening I couldn't ID them very well.
Just need to get a little more water time to sort everything out.
curleytail |
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Posts: 155
| Most of the ciscos I,ve seen are in the deepest part of the lake .They usually adhere to the bottom one foot of the lake.When they move up usually at night into the top 15-20 ft its time to get excited.Look for the deepest water with a rocky shoreline...Just my 2 cents! |
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