On Saturday, December 1st whitefish season opened on several streams here in the region. This annual opening offers a great opportunity for anglers to enjoy fishing on our area rivers, and the generous daily limit gets many people out. When you can take 15 fish a day it is a terrific way to stock the smoker with some great eating fish. The rivers that are now open to the taking of whitefish include: the Similkameen, Sinlahekin, Methow and Entiat. They all have the 15-fish daily limit, with no minimum size and will be open to the last day of February. All of these rivers require fishing under “whitefish rules”, and that means gear is restricted to on single-point hook, with a maximum hook size of 3/16th inch point to shank (hook size 14), and bait is allowed. I have caught whitefish on most all of these rivers and would say that populations are good on all of them. The river that has produced the largest whitefish is the Methow. It is not unusual to take whitefish weighing a couple of pounds on the Methow. I would encourage anglers to get out before winter temperatures cause freezing conditions, making fishing very difficult.