Lures

[bass master]

What have been the best lures for whitebass and crappiue as of latley

[Don House]

bass master, checkout my fishing report on this site, that should point you in the right direction..

Good Fishing

[Phil Lilley]

There are a host of reports from the past week... and I'm sure more to come.

[SKMO]

What have been the best lures for whitebass and crappiue as of latley

Bass Master - Don't get hung up searching for a real hot bait for either of these species right now. Hanging a hook within biting distance of these guys is 95% of the battle. Get within casting distance of them and throw just about any smallish bait and you will probably get bit.

Roadrunners and something with some some vibration or flash works well with the whites. In-line spinners good as well.

Crappie - I'm a jig fisherman and as hard as I try I have a hard time coming up with definite suggestions. Some of my rules of thumb on them would be: if you are up shallow in the water column or if you are in real clear water use natural shad colors and clears with sparkle.

As the water gets dingier or as you go deeper use some darker colors, blacks, reds, purples.

In really clear water go deeper and try some shade of green (watermelon or pumpkin), or smoke or motor oil.

When water is warming or fish are on banks and away from the wood, swimmin minnows and grubs work well. When fish are more finicky (crappie anyway) and not in a chasing mood crappie Tubes presented slow under a float, or vertical jigged next to a tree will be more effective.

Cloudy days they seem to disperse and you might find one about anywhere, sunny days they seem to hide in the shade of serious wood.

And NEVER hesitate to mix in some chartruse with it. Maybe a jig head, or paint a tail with spike-it. Spike it is pretty handy to have because if you have white plastic and a spike-it pen you also have chartruese. This is kind of a universal crappie color and seems to work in many locations under many circumstances.

There are probably more WB and crappie caught on 20 cent chartruese marabou jigs from Wal-Mart than all other baits combined.

WB can go on and off the bite at a whim and can be hard to catch until we get into the heart of "the run". Rack 'em up one day and the next you wonder if there are any in the lake at all. Crappie on the other hand are a little more prone to staying put. You may have to move a few hundred yards and fish deeper, slower, or more subtle, but rest assured they are nearby.

Biggest factor absolutely is just getting out there and doin' it, doing something and trying to seperate the right from the wrong.

Bear in mind these are all just my opinions and I am a LONG way from having these cold blooded creatures with a brain the size of a small pea figgered out!

[petertherock]

Good Advice from SKMO,

Right on information! I'm still going to put Mike Fischer's name out there. Don't know if he's still in the phone book? But, Mike lives in Galena, has a daughter that teaches at ReedsSprings Middle School, his wife Myrna, is always about town. Mike is probably one of the best local yocals on white bass fishing there is. That's all the guy does is fish for whites up on the James; except when he's frying suckers in the winter for locals up in Galena, (during gigging season). If you don't mind getting out at 12:00 midnight, in the cold of winter, the sucker fry is great! See if you can get a hold of him and shake him down for his info. I will tell you sometimes he's tight lipped though, especially when the fishing is on!

petertherock