Trout & salmon · Freshwater
Cisco
Coregonus artedi
Native pelagic coregonid of the Great Lakes and northern inland lakes; a major forage species with recreational value in some regions.
Also called Lake herring, tullibee.
- Stillwater
- Ordinary target
- 4 of 4 overlays reviewed
- Reviewed 2026-08-27
Take this somewhere
This page is the record. The reading is what happens when you add water, a season and a temperature to it — that is where the families below get ranked against each other instead of just listed.
Those three links carry the fish and nothing else. No conditions were declared on this page, so none travel, and the link says so rather than sending an empty reading.
The half nobody publishes
What this record does not know
Everything else on this page comes from a named agency or peer-reviewed source. This is the other side of that: the questions a reviewer went looking for an answer to and came back without, and the fields the record leaves empty because filling them would mean guessing.
It is here rather than at the bottom because a page that only shows what it knows is easy to read as a page that knows everything. For Cisco there are 12 of them.
Named by a reviewer
10Somebody looked for this and wrote down that they did not find it.
- Behaviour
Citation gap: “Great Lakes / provincial coregonid assessments” describes a source category rather than one resolvable document.
Nobody has sourced:
- diel vertical-migration amplitude as a structured field
- species-specific angling-pressure response beyond general cover/light notes
- Identification
Nobody has sourced:
- Great Lakes versus inland mean-size table
- longevity as a structured field
- Forage
Nobody has sourced:
- Great Lakes vs inland prey-taxa table
- finer month-by-month diet inside a season, which is waterbody-specific
- Season
Citation gap: “Peer-reviewed cisco oxythermal habitat literature” describes a source category rather than one resolvable document.
Nobody has sourced:
- Great Lakes vs inland calendars (RPC)
- month-by-month location changes inside a season, which are waterbody-specific
Absent from the record
2No reviewer wrote a gap here. The field is simply empty, which is its own answer.
- Water temperature
No agency or peer-reviewed temperature band for Cisco was found that a review would accept. The reading runs without one rather than borrowing a number from a related fish.
- Identification
No reviewed image. A photograph is only in this catalog when an agency or a named creator labelled the subject, and nobody has cleared one for this species yet.
Where the record puts it
Water and range
Stillwater
5 reviewed holding classes- Suspended / open water
- Thermocline edge
- Basin
- Drop-off
- Submerged hump
DepthHighly depth-variable by season, time of day, and life stage; often suspended and capable of broad diel vertical movement.
Moving waterPelagic lake fish whose position follows temperature, oxygen, plankton, prey fields, and basin circulation rather than cover.
LightLight and plankton movement can shift schools vertically; bright conditions commonly reinforce deeper usable layers in clear water.
Thermal band
Temperature
No reviewed temperature band
Nobody publishes a preferred or active temperature range for Cisco that a review would accept. Borrowing one from a related fish would look like knowledge and behave like a guess, so the reading runs without it and says which parts of the answer that weakens.
How it uses water
Behaviour
Pelagic schooling coregonid. A school is a forage- and temperature-linked aggregation, not a hotspot.
Zooplankton-oriented pelagic feeder; aquatic insects and small fish appear in some diets. Do not infer a current plankton event.
Vertical position commonly tracks light and plankton. Ice fisheries catch them without that implying a winter feeding event.
Seasonal activitySummer is an oxythermal-band problem in inland lakes. Late-fall/winter spawning is biology, not a targeting map. Spawning depth is never given as a location.
Temperature-driven behaviourColdwater pelagic fish. Warm surface water and oxygen squeeze push usable habitat into a narrowing band.
Depth movementSuspended in the column; depth follows temperature, oxygen, and plankton.
Facing the currentBasin circulation rather than river current. This record is stillwater.
CoverOpen-water depth bands, not wood or weeds.
Open waterDefault identity.
Predator avoidanceDepth and schooling. Cisco are themselves major forage for lake trout and other predators.
Spawning (conservation context)Fall-to-winter spawning ranges from shallow shoals to deep offshore habitat depending on stock. Spawning depth is never a target location.
Where the general rule stops
- Cisco are a major prey species for other predators; predator presence should not be inferred from a cisco record alone.
- A pelagic school is mobile biological structure, not a hotspot coordinate.
What it can eat
Forage
- Zooplankton
- Crustaceans
- Small forage fish
- Aquatic insects
Cisco primarily feed on microscopic zooplankton. Aquatic insect larvae, adult mayflies and stoneflies, and other invertebrates are also eaten by adults. Michigan Sea Grant: cisco feeds heavily under ice. This is not lake-whitefish benthic mollusk feeding.
- Feeding style
- Specialized
- Feeding zone
- Pelagic
Through the year
- Winter
- Zooplankton and under-ice feeding in coldwater lakes. This is a feeding-window description, not a catch claim.
- Spring
- Zooplankton in mixing water; insects possible during emergences.
- Summer
- Pelagic zooplankton in the cold, oxygenated layer. Oxythermal squeeze can separate cisco from warmer forage fish.
- Late fall
- Spawning is conservation context. Diet remains zooplankton/invertebrates, not a shallow-water bait event.
By life stage
- Young of year
- Small zooplankton.
- Juvenile
- Zooplankton and small invertebrates.
- Adult
- Zooplankton core; insects and occasional small fish in some stocks.
Ontogenetic shiftRemains largely planktivorous. Occasional fish in large adults does not convert cisco into a whitefish or trout diet.
SubstitutionsGreat Lakes stocks may include more Mysis or other crustaceans. Inland tullibee lakes stay Daphnia/copepod weighted.
Diet capacity is not proof that a hatch or prey event is occurring. Observed current forage still comes from a user observation or Hatch Match.
Through the year
Season
Winter
- Where they sit
- Suspended open water under ice or in the remaining cold band. Spawning may overlap early winter depending on stock.
- Feeding
- Zooplankton; cisco can feed heavily under ice.
What that changesVertical jig, suspend-pause, and horizontal retrieve.
What would count against it
- converting under-ice feeding into a named concentration
- naming shoals or offshore spawning depth as a pin
Winter spawning overlap remains excluded from target guidance.
Spring
- Where they sit
- Mixing pelagic water; sometimes higher in the column than summer.
- Forage
- Zooplankton; insects possible during emergences.
What that changesTrolling and horizontal retrieve.
Summer
- Where they sit
- Thermocline edge and basin in the 50–60°F preferred band.
- Temperature
- Oxythermal squeeze is a hard invalidator. Warm, low-oxygen water is not usable cisco habitat.
What that changesVertical jig, trolling, and suspend-pause on the remaining cold, oxygenated layer.
What would count against it
- forcing shallow summer water above the warm edge
Late fall
- Where they sit
- Spawning habitat class is stock-specific and is not published as a target.
What would count against it
- naming shoals or offshore spawning depth as a pin
Fall-to-winter spawning. Spawning depth is never given as a target location.
Spawning · Late fall, Winter
Fall-to-winter spawning ranges from shallow shoals to deep offshore habitat depending on stock; spawning depth is never given as a target location.
Recorded as conservation context. No spawning site, staging concentration or migration bottleneck is named anywhere in this catalog, because naming one is how a population gets fished out.
Telling it apart
Identification
What to look at
- Minnesota DNR / North Dakota GF: mouth terminal — the lower jaw extends up to or beyond the tip of the snout.
- More slender, larger-eyed profile than lake whitefish.
- Typically smaller at adulthood than lake whitefish in the same waters.
- Adipose fin present (trout/salmon family), unlike mooneye.
- Average adult length
- Common inland and Great Lakes adults often 8–14 in; larger fish occur.
- Common angling size
- 8–13 in, including many ice fisheries.
- Typical weight
- Often well under 2 lb.
- Maximum documented
- Minnesota DNR: state-record cisco 5 lb 11.8 oz. Lake whitefish in the same waters grow larger.
What it gets confused with
- Lake whitefish
- Lake whitefish have a subterminal mouth: the snout overhangs the lower jaw. They are deeper-bodied and typically grow larger. Minnesota DNR treats snout position as the main distinguishing feature.
- Mooneye
- Mooneye lack an adipose fin, have a large silvery eye, and are not coregonines. Minnesota DNR notes the similarity in silver color and large eyes.
- Kokanee
- Kokanee are Pacific salmon with a different anal-fin count and a red/green spawning dress; they are not terminal-mouthed whitefish.
What follows from all of that
Presentation families
Stillwater
Vertical jig
Work a compact bait up and down through a marked depth, basin, or timber pocket.
- stay over the target
- measured lift
- controlled drop
- watch slack
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- Vertical
- Weight range
- 1/8–3/4 oz
- Cover resistance
- Moderate
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
Horizontal retrieve
Move a swimming bait through a chosen depth band along structure or open water.
- count down
- steady or pulsing retrieve
- keep the band
- cover the edge
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- Moderate
- Sensitivity
- Moderate
- Casting distance
- Moderate to long
- Weight range
- 1/8–1/2 oz
- Cover resistance
- Moderate
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Low
Suspend / pause
Leave a neutrally buoyant bait hanging in place where fish are already holding.
- reach the band
- long pause
- tiny pulse only if needed
- do not leave the zone
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- Moderate
- Weight range
- 1/8–3/8 oz suspending
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Low
Trolling
Cover a depth contour or basin at a controlled speed to intercept mobile fish.
- speed control
- depth control
- follow the contour
- turn to change action
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- Low
- Casting distance
- Boat
- Weight range
- Varies with speed and depth
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Moderate
- Retie frequency
- Low
What moves them for this fish
Reviewed rules that push particular families up when the conditions match. Each one names the conditions it needs and why it exists, so you can disagree with it.
Cisco position follows coldwater plankton and basin circulation; reinforce suspended depth-band mechanics.
When
Suspended / open water, Thermocline edge, Basin · Zooplankton, Crustaceans
Moves up
Suspend / pause, Trolling, Vertical jig, Horizontal retrieve
Reviewed 2026-08-27
Bright clear conditions often push cisco deeper in usable coldwater layers.
When
Thermocline edge, Basin, Drop-off · Bright
Moves up
Vertical jig, Suspend / pause, Trolling, Horizontal retrieve
Reviewed 2026-08-27
Not every population is the same fish
Regional population context
Great Lakes pelagic
- Large lake pelagic
- Native
- Stillwater
Treat occupied depth as a moving pelagic layer governed by season, time of day, life stage, plankton, and basin-scale temperature/oxygen rather than shoreline cover.
USFWS describes Great Lakes cisco as pelagic zooplankton feeders that can occupy nearly the full depth range depending on season, time of day, and life stage.
- A cisco school is mobile biological structure and never a coordinate output.
- Spawning depth varies widely among stocks; spawning concentrations are not a place to target.
Northern inland lake
- Inland lake pelagic
- Native or established
- Stillwater
In a smaller inland system, the usable pelagic layer is more tightly bounded by lake depth, oxygen, and seasonal stratification than in the Great Lakes.
The same pelagic biology applies inland, but the physical scale and available oxythermal refuge can compress the population into a narrower usable layer.
- Verify that the water actually supports cisco; suitable temperature alone does not establish presence.
- Introduced predators or forage competitors can materially change depth use and population viability.
Where every sentence came from
Sources
Agency
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cisco species account
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; forage; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
USGS cisco and bloater culture / ecology manual
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; forage. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
Minnesota DNR cisco / lake whitefish / mooneye identification
Used for identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-23.
Agency
North Dakota Game and Fish cisco vs lake whitefish identification
Used for identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-23.
Agency
Minnesota DNR cisco identification and fishery notes
Used for behaviour. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-19.
Agency
Michigan Sea Grant cisco (lake herring) diet notes
Used for forage. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-12-07.
Agency
Michigan Sea Grant cisco (lake herring) notes
Used for season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-13.
Agency
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Cisco species profile
Used for population context. Read 2026-08-27.
Agency
State inland cisco and coldwater-lake assessments
Used for population context. Read 2026-08-27.
Peer reviewed
Peer-reviewed cisco oxythermal habitat literature
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; population context. Read 2026-08-27, next check 2026-11-27.
A source with no link predates the rule that one has to carry a URL. It is still a real citation and still checkable; it just takes a search rather than a click, and that is worth knowing before you rely on it.