European whitefish

Quick facts

How to identify it

A slender, herring-like salmonid with large silvery scales, a small head and a small, toothless mouth set below a slightly overhanging snout — the mark of a plankton feeder. The back is blue-grey to greenish, the flanks bright silver and the belly white; like all salmonids it carries an adipose fin, and the tail is deeply forked. The fins are grey, sometimes with dark edges. It can be confused with the vendace, which is smaller and has an upturned lower jaw, and with grayling, which has a huge sail-like dorsal fin. Whitefish across Europe form many local races that differ in gill-raker count, size and depth preference.

Where it lives

Whitefish live in deep, cold, well-oxygenated lakes: the pre-Alpine lakes of Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland and northern Italy, Scandinavian and Baltic lakes, upland reservoirs and a few large, slow rivers; some Baltic populations run into brackish water. They are pelagic shoal fish that follow clouds of zooplankton in open water rather than holding on structure. In summer the shoals sit at the thermocline, often 8–25 m down, and rise towards the surface at dawn and dusk when midges hatch; in spring and autumn they feed shallower and closer to shore. Bottom-feeding forms pick chironomid larvae from mud in 20–40 m. Surface water above 18–20 °C simply pushes them deeper, so depth, not location, is the first question to answer.

Season and behaviour

Whitefish spawn in late autumn and winter, typically November to January, on gravel shallows or over deep bottoms depending on the race, and most countries protect them with a winter closed season. Fishing begins as lakes warm in spring, when the fish are shallow and hungry after spawning; May and June are excellent. Through summer they sit deep by day, and the best sport comes at dawn and in the evening when shoals rise to feed on hatching midges — rises in a flat calm can look like rain on the water. September and October bring a feeding spell before spawning and the heaviest fish of the year. Takes are famously delicate: a slight lift, a wobble or a sudden slackness in the line.

Fishing methods

The classic method on Alpine lakes is the Hegene: a fine paternoster of 3–5 tiny nymphs on short droppers above a slim lead, fished vertically from an anchored or slowly drifting boat once the echo sounder has shown the shoal's depth. The rig is lowered to the fish, lifted gently a hand's width at a time and allowed to sink; takes come on the pause, and the strike is a soft lift, never a jerk, because the mouth tears easily. Bites register through a soft-tipped rod or a slim float set to the exact depth. Where whitefish feed shallow, float fishing with maggots or bloodworm over light groundbait, light feeder tactics on reservoirs and fly fishing with small nymphs or dry midges at dusk all work. Main lines of 0.12–0.16 mm and hooks in sizes 12–18 are standard.

Baits and lures

Whitefish eat zooplankton and midge larvae, so everything is small. Hegene nymphs come in red, white, green, black and glow patterns tied on size 12–18 hooks, often with a small bead; colour and size matter more than most anglers expect, so change until one dropper starts producing. For natural baits, maggots, pinkies, bloodworm and small red worms on fine hooks are the standard, fished at the depth where the echo sounder shows the shoal. Micro spoons and jigs take the bigger, more predatory fish. Groundbait should be light and cloudy rather than heavy and filling.

Tips from the bank

1. 01Find the depth first: without an echo sounder you are guessing, so note the band where the shoal shows and fish inside it.
2. 02Lift the rig slowly and let it sink on a tight line — almost every take comes on the drop or the pause.
3. 03Strike with a gentle lift of the rod; the whitefish's mouth is paper-thin and a hard strike tears the hook out.
4. 04Fish the first two hours after dawn and the last hour before dark, when the shoals rise towards the surface.
5. 05Swap nymph colours until one dropper produces, then tie the whole rig in that pattern.
6. 06In summer heat, look for the thermocline (often 10–20 m down) rather than the bottom.
7. 07Use a long-handled landing net and keep the fish in the water; lifting a whitefish on the line usually means a lost fish.

Where to catch European whitefish

Waters where Shoalmap's fishing reports list European whitefish.

• Hallingdalselve

Related species

• Arctic char
  Salvelinus alpinus

  The cold-water char of deep alpine lakes and Arctic rivers.

• Grayling
  Thymallus thymallus

  The sail-finned lady of clean, fast-flowing rivers.

• Brown trout
  Salmo trutta

  The wary, spotted native of cold rivers and deep lakes.

• Rainbow trout
  Oncorhynchus mykiss

  The hard-fighting, high-jumping trout of stocked lakes and cool rivers.

Frequently asked questions