I didn’t even know what a freshwater “whitefish” was when I applied for a permit to spearfish them. I’ve lived in Alaska for 7 years now and never drawn a tag. I’ve put in for moose and mountain goat and Kodiak elk and a bunch of other things with no luck. So I figured my chances of getting a whitefish tag was slim to none.
Then, in August, I got an email back from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game awarding my first ever Alaska draw tag: to spearfish whitefish in the Chatanika River near Fairbanks. Me and my friend Dan were the only 2 people on the Kenai Peninsula to earn a tag.
Of course, we had no idea what we were doing when we set out on the 600-mile drive north to Fairbanks, but that didn’t stop us. Dan drove up with his 7-year-old son, and my buddy Ash and I set off in his camper.
1. Spearfish just after dusk
The first thing I learned is that spearfishing for whitefish is a nighttime activity. As the sun fades behind pointy tree tops, whitefish meander from deep pockets into shallow, rocky beds to do fish stuff and swim around. This is your chance to strike.
We spent three consecutive nights stalking these sometimes elusive and often delicious fish. It got cold with temperatures dipping well below freezing in late September, but that didn’t stop us from freezing our knuckles and noses on the hunt.
2. Don’t look directly at them
The olden ways of spearfishing whitefish is using a kerosene lantern fashioned on plywood (or whatever apparatus you throw together) to deflect light from your face out into the water. The wide berth of kerosene lanterns are told to make the fish stand out more in the darkness. But there are a few obvious drawbacks to this method: 1) it can catch fire pretty easily if you bring your lantern in contact with water, and 2) it takes a lot more time and effort to make a lantern holster then it does to strap on a head lamp and give it a whirl. Plus, I don’t even own a kerosene lantern, so there’s that.
So we bypassed the wisdom of the internet and went out with headlamps and not lanterns, and we still caught fish. Who knows if our outcome would have been better with a lantern in hand? But I ended up with 9 whitefish in 3 nights, 1 short of my household limit. Maybe I should have stuck it out, but by 11 p.m. on our last night temperatures had plummeted into the low teens and the fish had scattered.
The best advice I can give from this experience is to not look directly at the fish with your headlamp. Instead look down at the water in front of you and keep an eye on your periphery. Often these fish linger on the edge of sight and can be easily spooked, so don’t look directly at them if you’re hoping to lure them within spearin’ range.
3. Finding the right area to spearfish is key
We arrived at the Chatanika River’s crossing on the Steese Highway in late afternoon, which gave us a perfect chance to scout things out before darkness set in. There are two main camping areas and both offer good opportunities for catching whitefish and other species:
- Olnes Pond Campground — Located on the south side of the river, the Olnes Pond Campground is a loop centered around a big pond with river access through a series of short trails. This is where we spent our first two nights and saw the best fishing grounds (more on that below).
- Whitefish Campground and Boat Launch — North of the river across the Steese Highway bridge is the Whitefish Campground. River access from here is direct with many campsites on or near the river banks.
We spearfished out of both Olnes Pond and Whitefish campgrounds. Olnes Pond offered a lot more prime hunting ground — shallow gravel bar areas — than the Whitefish Campground did, at least in my opinion. We saw several locals in both locations during the 3 night we were there.
4. Plan to fish for more than just Whitefish
Don’t forget to bring a hook and line for some epic grayling, whitefish, and possibly even sheefish fishing on the Chatanika River. 2023 regulations allowed retention of 5 grayling daily, and 15 whitefish using hook and line. Whitefish are notoriously hard to catch with a rod and reel, but my buddy Ash landed 2 nice sized least ciscos, lost a giant humpy whitefish, and also hooked into what we are pretty sure was a decent sized sheefish on our last day full day there.
I used a fly rod with small pink grub tail and ghetto-rigged split shot weights to land 8 graylings our first day out. That’s a personal record for me since I had never fished for grayling before. Ash’s spinning rod did the trick later in the trip when I couldn’t buy a bite on my trusty pink grub. So it goes.
5. Cook some whitefish fresh, smoke the rest
We cooked a couple of whitefish directly over our campfire and, I must say, they were absolutely delicious. Whitefish are best known to eat fresh as they will get soft after freezing. The same is said for grayling. But I froze and vacuum sealed most of my catch to take back to Homer and share with friends. So far my favorite way to prepare them is a smoked whitefish dip that has gone over quite well at parties, especially since a lot of my Alaskan fishy friends had never heard of a freshwater whitefish before, either.
