White Bass In Flat Creek

[Tom Spence]

I mentioned this in the Keep the Mouth Shut topic but don't know if many people saw it or not. Sunday in the Heartland I got into a good bunch of white bass in Flat Creek just past the split with the James. I was on the east bank where it transitions to chunk then bluff. They were slamming my wiggle wart but would probably hit something else even better. All kinds of them on the graph under the boat in 18-20 feet of water.

[Sam]

I saw your white bass report and mentioned it to my partner yesterday. We were fishing upper Bull Shoals, and the cove that was full of white bass a week ago was empty yesterday. We found a few out on the channel drop-offs, but not in any quantity. Those whites move around a lot, but when you find them there's usually a big bunch of them and an easy limit.

It's about time for a trip up James, because every year I enjoy crappie and white bass fishing amongst the spoonbillers. It seems like every year I snag a spoonbill with a crappie jig and that's exciting for about 5 seconds (they always jump when stuck). The pre-runs of white bass are fun too - that'll be the males coming up this early, and they're better eating anyway. Thanks for the tip.

I ran into a tournament fisherman when getting gas on the way to the lake yesterday. He noticed my Bass Pro ball cap was kind of ratty and one of his sponsors is Bass Pro, so he got in his truck and gave us two brand-new Bass Pro ball caps. See, there's some good in every crowd.