Photos: Sheefish ice fishing on Kotzebue Sound

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A sheefish rests on the ice after being caught on the Kotzebue Sound on Monday, Feb. 16, 2015. Sheefish can weigh up to 60 pounds.

Sunshine lured ice fishermen to the frozen surface of Kotzebue Sound on Monday.

With temperatures in the 20s and a light north wind, anglers jigged for sheefish.

Lifelong Kotzebue resident York Mendenhall, who recently retired from a Kotzebue city job, was using a handmade "jigger" from 1980, strung with 70-pound test line, to dangle a "Doctor Spoon" beneath a hole in 3 feet of ice. Mendenhall said the ice should be twice as thick this time of year.

He said it's not unusual to catch 25- to 35-pounders. "Those are the big females," he said.

Sheefish are a large whitefish, important for subsistence and popular for sportfishing, and they can weigh up to 60 pounds.