Where do you look for White Bass in April?

[Phil Lilley]

I'm not an authority on white bass on Table Rock by any means but I wanted to start a topic that will start to cover the ins and outs of white bass fishing on Table Rock in April.

Typically, white bass spawn in feeder creeks, rivers, points and coves but most anglers focus their attention on the creeks and rivers because they are easier to target. Water temperature plays a key part in when and where they spawn. Watching weather patterns including warm days, warm windy days and rainfall is crucial to knowing when they make their move.

Rainfall usually brings water water into the system. It also adds colored water. Colored water warms much faster than clear water (very important to know). And I believe fresh, warm water triggers spawning whites more than anything else.

Rivers- James, Flat, White, Roaring, Kings, Long are all major feeder arms.

Best times to catch whites- early morning and late evening. They tend to move during low light times. Night time is even good.

Pre-season - locate whites using lures you can cover alot of water with. Rebels, rapalas, sluggos, grubs, swimming minnows. When you find one you'll usually find two or more. They will move in and out of the creeks/rivers. If there are deeper holes int he river, below shallower gravel areas, that where they will stage, hold. Otherwise, they'll be in the mouths waiting to run. Males typically will be the ones that will move up and down the river. Females will move but not as far and not as often.

Spawn - this is the easy time to catch whites... sometimes. I find when they are in the spawning areas, which are shallow gravel with moving water preferablly, they will bite. Live minnows are the best bait, drifted down to them from above using light line and a split shot. Fly fishing using small clousers and other streamers are also good. But be aware if it's fairly clear water and a bright sunny day, they won't be as cooperative to bite.

Int he peak of spawn, whites will rise to the surface and tail, making a circle as they spawn. I've been told 2 males will push a female up between them and eject their sperm and eggs at the same time while they do this 'dance'.

Post-spawn - Whites will stay in these rivers and creeks for alot longer than you think. I've caught them in the creeks way into June before. The idea is they stay in the creeks as long as there are minnows there to eat. Rebels and small sluggos are my favorite lure during these times.

[SKMO]

I’m no expert either but I used to chase them pretty seriously until about 5 years ago until I got sidetracked by the bass and crappie. So many fish, so little time. Why do all these things happen at once? Couldn’t something spawn in July or August?

Anyway most of my experience is in the Kings River, but I usually make a couple trips up the White near Holiday Island as well. Everything Phil said applies to these waters plus I could make a couple more observations.

Phil mentioned the tough bite on clear days in the spawning areas. Very true. A couple years ago a friend and I boated into AR on the Kings when lake was at a higher level. Got there in afternoon and it was real slow, only boated a couple small ones. We stayed til dark and as soon as the sun set it was a whole new ball game, we caught several large fish on 2 different occasions doing this.

Although there are a lot of fish way up in the lake headwaters and in the river, I always catch much larger fish downlake a few miles trolling in the Sweetwater to Jakie area, even at the peak of the spawn..Usually troll with shad raps. I have a good friend who has lived in Eagle Rock his whole life show me how to catch them this way, and he is deadly at it. A fisheries biologist told me that he thought that a lot of the larger fish spawned on steeper gravel banks on the lake, especially banks that got a lot of wind, so maybe they don’t all run up the river.

I know another guy from Jenkins who tears them up trolling as well, but he uses a Hellbender plug with a 3-way swivel and a Vibrax spinner. This thing goes really deep but sometimes that’s where they are. They actually make a version of this plug without hooks for using as a “downrigger” like this, and this setup will work all summer out in the big water as well. I have heard they sell these Hellbenders at one of the tackle stores in K-City, they are actually fairly hard to find, even the ones with hooks.

Another way I have caught some real big whites is to fish the last few deep holes in the Kings (Dollar Hole, Blue Hole, Blake Allen). They will pile up in these 25-30’ holes during the day, and I found an effective way to catch them was to cast and let a rattle trap sink clear to the bottom then rip it up and down off the bottom back to the boat.

Finally here’s something interesting that happened a few years ago in late April. There were four of us fishing for whites and the other boat caught a couple kind of deep, and we were pretty sure we were marking lots of fish down there. It was one of those steeper gravel banks I mentioned above that the biologist thought they might spawn on. Anyway long story short we threw everything at them to no avail. One of the guys told us to all tie on poppers (Pop-R, Chug Bug type). We all 4 tied one on, cast in same general spot in unison and the results were amazing, apparently making enough commotion to trigger them to bite.

I have done this same thing since with schooling bass post-spawn on the main lake more than once. When you know you are over fish sometimes this will work to call them up, and sometimes not

[petertherock]

Hey Fellows,

Same here, can you give me an updated White Bass report as of March 30th - TODAY!

Thanks

petertherock