[The Spank]

Big whites were very common on the waters I fished in Ontario though few targeted them, myself included. Most I caught were incidental when fishing lakers or walleye. Of those I did catch most were on a williams whitefish 50/50 gold/silver 2 1/2” jigged plain or a shiner minnow on a tip up. The few guys who did target them used pinhead shiners(1”-2” shiners) on a weighted spreader rig which had a hook attached to each end via a wire or mono lead. They would put a pinhead shiner on each end and lower it to about 1” from bottom. Line was on a tip up type rig that balanced on a stand. When the fish picked the minnow off bottom the rig tipped upward generally from being set so close to bottom and the fisherman simply lifted the stick off the stand and swept upward setting the hook in one motion then brought the fish in by handlining.
This was the traditional Ontario method of catching whitefish. I think this rig originated with the old Finlanders who settled in Ontario at the start of the 20th century?