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[size 2][font "Comic Sans MS"][black]Recently, I was watching an In-Fishermen video about fishing for mackinaw in Canada and the Great Lakes area. Frequently throughout the video, it was stated that one of mackinaw's prime food forage was cisco. I have always been under the impression that cisco can be found in only one place in the world … Bear Lake. I have also been told that there may be another place in the Orient that they can be found. But in the video, they made the viewer think that cisco are all over in the Canadian waters. Can any of you readers clarify for me just where cisco can be found? Are there really any cisco in the waters of Canada?[/black][/font][/size]
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The Cisco is in many of most of the Great Lakes if not all of them andi I am sure that they are in Canada as well. The Bear lake cisco is only in Bear Lake and no other place in the world.
I here a little info I found on them.
"
The cisco (Coregonus artedi) is a species of [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anadromous"]anadromous[/url] [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish"]fish[/url] in the [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon"]salmon[/url] [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_%28biology%29"]family[/url] (family [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmonidae"]Salmonidae[/url]).
The cisco occasionally grows as large as 400 mm and 5 pounds (2.3 kg). It has silver sides. They live in cold water lakes and rivers in North America and eat [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooplankton"]zooplankton[/url] and insect larvae. It is a pelagic fish occurring in the midwater zone of lakes, related to the lake [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitefish"]whitefish[/url]. They are preyed upon by game fish, like [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_%28fish%29"]pike[/url] and [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_trout"]lake trout[/url], and are fished commercially and for sport in some locations. Commercial fishing, [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon"]salmon[/url] stocking and competition from non-native [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alewife"]alewives[/url] and [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smelt"]smelt[/url] have almost eliminated cisco from the [url "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_%28North_America%29"]Great Lakes[/url]. Their ongoing population decline today in much of the Great Lakes is believed to be principally a result of alewife competition although other factors may also be at work.
The cisco is also known as the lake herring or the tullibee. "
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OC, You are right concerning the cisco in Bear Lake. There is other "strains" of them in other parts of the world, including the Orient. I had not heard that they were as prevalent in Canadian waters as the video said they are. I was under the impression that the cisco were probably part of a larger lake system like Lake Bonaville here in Utah. I do not know if it spread up into Canada, but I guess that it would seem probable. Only a few more weeks and we should start picking them up!
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In Googling for "Cisco Fish", also called lake herring,you will find pix from deep bodied to slender, located from Canada, Great Lakes to Bear Lake. Here is a telling quote
"While some [black]14 [black]similar and confusing species[/black][/black] of Coregonus are found in Canada and the northern US, only 2 are native to the Boundary Waters."
and a good link ... [url "http://www.gen.umn.edu/research/fish/fishes/cisco.html"]http://www.gen.umn.edu/research/fish/fishes/cisco.html[/url]
and [url "http://www.landbigfish.com/fishingspots/fishingspots.cfm?fish=Cisco"]http://www.landbigfish.com/fishingspots/fishingspots.cfm?fish=Cisco[/url]
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