Deidra Evans, age 13, of Tooele, Utah, for her question:

WHAT SORT OF FISH IS THE CISCO?

At certain seasons fishermen rejoice to hear that the cisco are running. This means that these tasty fishes are migrating between deep and shallow waters. It is time to go out and catch a quota, usually with nets. Some will be served up fresh from their freshwater lakes. Others will be smoked and stored for later.

The cisco was named by French Canadian fishermen, who borrowed the word from the Ojibwa Indians. He is related to the tasty trout and more distantly related to the seagoing salmon. His closest kinfolk are the whitefish, alias the lake herring. In fact, some experts class the cisco as one of the many members of the lake whitefish group.

The various whitefish are native to North America and abound in lakes from Alaska as far south as Arkansas.  A few types sometimes enter streams and rivers. The cisco is a cool water fish, who favors the Great Lakes and other lakes where he can retire to cool deep water. Like other lake whitefish, he migrates to the shallow shores during the early spring and late fall.

Fall is the spawning season, when the female lays between 8,000 and 15,000 heavy little eggs. Most of them sink to the bottom and spend the winter hidden, more or less, among rocky gravel. The larvas hatch in the spring. They surface for a few days and the survivors make their way out into deeper water.

There they grow, feeding on freshwater mollusks, crustaceans and aquatic insects. At 3 years old, they are mature and ready to be caught in the fisherman's net. Some fishermen prefer to catch them with hook and line, as they catch trout.

There are fisherman's tales of rare ciscos weighing up to 20 pounds. But the average catch is about 18 inches long and weighs from three to four pounds. For a time, the numbers of these valuable food fishes were greatly reduced. But nowadays, supplies of eggs are nurtured in hatcheries and used to restock the lakes.

The cisco's tapering body has a rounded meaty middle, shaped somewhat like a trout. However, the trout are more frisky and usually more colorful. The cisco is a shiny bluish silver, often tinged on the back with pink, yellow or olive green. His faint coloring tends to vary slightly in certain lakes.