While working in the yard at the cottage recently, my brother Robert phoned and said to come for coffee with my wife Eve-Anne. Morning coffee during fishing season? What’s up?

We soon found out as we walked into the receiving shed and I was handed a dressing knife. Robert pointed at tubs of whitefish and suggested I have at it. I explained that I had learned to dress whitefish in 1950 at the age of 14, while at our summer whitefish station at Georges Island which is in the north basin of Lake Winnipeg. Good, all you will need is a quick refresher course. Then came the kicker. If I worked fast there would be a pan of Whitefish livers waiting for me at supper time. My mouth watered at the thought.

I first had these incredibly delicious morsels that same summer on my father’s gas boat anchored 30 miles south of Georges Island in Reindeer Island harbour. They were cooked in a cast iron frying pan of butter on a Coleman camp stove so long ago, by a crew of four smelly, sweaty fishermen. The historic repast was then washed down by reaching over the side of the boat for a cup of Lake water. Whitefish livers are a cross between a 90-day aged filet mignon and a hot dog. Anthony Bourdain would have loved them. Unforgettable! They are so delicate they have to be rinsed many times in fresh water, and then consumed immediately.

After packing and icing the catch. We washed our utensils. Then we retired to the house while Eve-Anne and sister-in-law Sigurros cooked up the livers. We also had a side dish of Pickerel cheeks and Icelandic brown bread. Not to be out done, nephew Chris sent over a smoked whitefish fillet. This time I was able to mix some Crown Royal with the cold Gimli water. It was an amazing dinner.

Later over coffee, I asked why the resurgence in the white fish catch. It was a good question. All of Mother Nature’s creatures go in cycles he said. High water? Low water? Warm water? Over fishing? Predators? Lake Winnipeg was first commercially fished in 1880 by 2 fishermen by the name of Reid and Clark, who came from Georgian Bay on Lake Huron Ontario. They hired a small tug in Selkirk called the “Lady Ellen”, they then added a sail boat. They loaded both boats with gill nets, and sailed down the Red River 30 miles to Elk Island. There they found Lake Winnipeg teeming with whitefish. Of course, whitefish was already a popular smoker and baked fish in Eastern Canada and the United States. The quality and abundance of the distinctive front humped fish was immediately commercially named Selkirk whitefish. This name distinguished it from the Great Lakes Whitefish. A marketing ploy perhaps. I well remember seeing this name on fish tags as a youngster. However, as new Whitefish spawn was introduced into the lake in later years the name was dropped. The Whitefish fishing industry immediately expanded to a point where a quota of 2 million pounds was imposed. Over fishing? Lack of research? Whitefish was the King.

The catch in the 1930’s declined substantially. Pickerel and Sauger became the dominant fish. Now the fish of choice. Interesting to note, east of Thunder Bay around the Great Lakes Whitefish is still in great demand. Whether smoked, filleted, baked or even deep fried. Another liver perhaps? No, I couldn’t! I am stuffed. Well, maybe just one more...

Ken Kristjanson
June 2018