March had a lower river level at this part of the East Fork Lewis River, comparing with other years. I didn’t go fishing a lot this month, but I caught this 11 inch fish, a River White Fish! I thought this fish is a kind of an endangered one, not a Lake white fish but a River white fish. As a matter of fact, this catch is my first experience with a white fish. I caught two white fish but one hooked off somehow. This fight was not so exciting because this fish didn’t run around and didn’t pull a lot so it was easy to handle. When I first glanced at the body, I thought what a big minnow it is! Then when I saw the fish shape, I thought Looks like a Bone fish!!

White fish’s mouth is really small like a sucker fish. Trout can open their mouth wide and can bite a nice size of fly hook. My streamer has a bead on the tail. So this fish aimed not at the fly hook body itself but its tiny bead, I think. Actually the fly hook did sting outside of the mouth. My hook is barb less, so it’s hard to keep to hold of the fish. This time was lucky. I could land it.

This fish’s eye pupil is exactly same shape with another trout. This tiny mouth is kinda cute. I thought possibly this fish is a pike minnow. I caught a pike minnow at the lower EFL several years ago. But this mouth shape is way different. I’ve never seen this fish at EFL until this catch. I’m not sure if this fish came back from the ocean or lower river for spawning?! Well, I’ll keep trying to catch this fish with small hook using a tiny bead. My friend said some people eat smoked white fish back east. But I think White fish is kind of a pretty fish! So I released this fish anyway because it’s a local wild fish. I should research more about this fish, if it’s now an endangered fish or not.