Cisco Disco!
While we packed up at the end of a short, family ice fishing session, a local fellow stopped by as he was hopping from shack to shack on his ATV to ask how the fishing was. Reflecting on the steady bite we enjoyed, my wife Christy asserted, “We did pretty good targeting cisco”. The fellow kind of nodded his head, said nothing, and drove off.
UNDER THE RADAR
Some freshwater fish species don’t get much love. The lowly cisco is a favourite snack of pretty well all predator fish, but at best seen as a nuisance bi-catch of hardwater walleye anglers. Their distinctive smell and oily quality keep most people from eating them—so why bother targeting cisco? The potential for non-stop action, the benefits of harvesting them for bait, or the challenge of learning to read an exceptionally light bite are a few great reasons to deliberately target cisco through the ice. Welcome to the cisco disco!
WHERE TO FIND THEM
Cisco are distributed from the Qu’Appelle River system to the top of Northern Saskatchewan, favoring deep, oxygen-rich lakes. There are lots of great options, but Mission or Katepwa Lake are two hotspots. Spawning between October and December, they school up in large numbers and get aggressive during the ice fishing season. Cisco are pelagic, meaning they associate with open water more than bottom structure as they roam in search of suspended zooplankton and small insects. Knowing this, a good place to start looking for them is to find a 30–50-foot basin and set up near the edge. School after school of cisco will move through, so there is little need to move once you find some on your sonar.
GOOD EYESIGHT
Cisco put their large eyes to use while feeding. Many times, I’ve jigged a small spoon way above a suspended mark on the sonar and the cisco will shoot up 20 feet to satisfy their curiosity. It is important to use tackle that incorporates some flash. Bright sun seems to fire them up too—likely they try to capitalize on the visual advantage. They tend to display a slow bite at dusk and dawn, so targeting them during the mid-day lull will round out a multi-species day.
Lures with glow or UV coatings doesn’t hurt either. Cisco have small, soft mouths so it is important that the terminal tackle will fit and keep them pinned. Using a drop chain or a leader to get some distance between your hook and your lure is a good technique. Tipping your hook with a mealworm or a synthetic maggot gives the cisco something to key in on.
On a recent trip, we incorporated all of this by using the kokanee salmon ice fishing rigs we had strung on our rods (the remanence of a failed trip to British Columbia due to weather).
TERMINAL TACKLE
To make a kokanee rig, take the treble hook off your favourite pike spoon, add an 18-inch leader, and tie on a small, weighted jig. I found a pink glow VMC tungsten fly jig or a Northlands Forage Minnow under a William’s Whitefish spoon caught the most cisco that day.
The tendency of cisco to roam throughout the water column makes using a flasher or sonar unit important. They can be anywhere from the lake bottom to right under the ice. Like lake trout, cisco can regulate their swim bladders by “burping”, so they are not as susceptible to barotrauma.
TRIGGERING THE BITE
A good technique is to drop your lure at or past the mark your sonar. Next jig your lure aggressively to gain attention. If there are no marks on the screen, jigging like this at the mid-water column can often bring in a school from afar. Once you see a mark level out with your lure, reel up 3-5 feet. This will get the cisco chasing up toward your bait and separates their interest from your lure.
On the underwater camera, I observed the cisco often smacking into the bigger spoon section of the rig until I reeled up and presented the jig in front of their nose. This slight of hand usually results in a bite. If they don’t commit, drop your rig 10 feet past the fish in a free fall to re-establish the chase. The bite is exceptionally light, and their mouths are paper thin, so it takes some practice and keen observation of your rod tip and line to keep them pinned.
DINNER FARE?
Cisco are absolute candy…if you are a lake trout, burbot, pike or catfish! I must admit I brined and smoked a batch, and the result was not unlike smoked whitefish. However, the cisco we keep are more often converted into burbot and lake trout by serving as cut bait. The oily flesh creates an effective bait cloud, and the flesh is much firmer than sucker. We vacuum pack some each year to have on hand for pike quick strike rigs, chum for lake trout, burbot bait, and cut bait for channel catfish. Check your local regulations surrounding the use of fish for bait. Above all, ensure you thoroughly freeze the fish before using them as bait to destroy any parasites.
Some days, you just need to satisfy the need to land a maximum of fish with a minimum of effort. With no limit and little to no effect of barotrauma, targeting cisco make for a fun outing. If nothing else, it is a good way to learn to read electronics or keep young anglers interested past their short attention span. Like disco, it might seem like senseless glee or annoying fun, but cisco fishing is definitely catchy!
Cisco or Tullibee?
Part of the same family and genus as lake whitefish, cisco are related to their bigger cousin. The easiest way to tell the difference between whitefish and cisco is the jaw. Lake whitefish have an upper jaw that extends beyond the lower jaw. The Cisco’s lower jaw extends beyond the upper jaw (think Bubba from Forest Gump). Lake whitefish spend most of their time of the bottom of sand and mud flats rooting out prey while cisco slurp in suspended prey. So, what is the difference between tullibee and cisco?
Well, nothing. They are really the same fish, different name. The choice is largely regional, although there seems to be a specific sub-species of cisco in the Great Lakes region that the term tullibee adorned once upon a time. Kind of like the use of pike and jackfish or (dare I mention) walleye and pickerel. It is interesting to note the regional difference between Provinces: Saskatchewan’s Anglers Guide lists cisco as one of the 28 sport fish species while tullibee is used in the Travel Manitoba Master Angling Program. Whatever you call them, a healthy population of these fish are the foundation of world-class sportfishing on the Prairies.