White Bass?

[crappieslayer]

Hey guys.....Wondering if anyone has any tips for getting some white bass on Table Rock now through the weekend. I was out on Flat Creek last weekend and they definately weren't up there. Thinking about trying Aunts creek this afternoon...to see if they are around. I'm not a very experience white bass fisherman, but would love to take my nephews out to catch a few. Are they usually deep this time of year or should I be able to find them in the same bays that I did in the Spring time? Any help would be greatly appreciated guys. Thanks!

[Bill Babler]

Slayer, here is the deal.

There have been several guides catching them up the James, most all are main lake deep flats. Fish seem to be holding in the 32 to 50 ft. range and they "Are Not Biting Every Day."

Good electronics and knowing how to read them are not a must, but pretty durn important.

Most often on your graph, the fish will be lying on the bottom. You will see a dark or heavy line, tucked tight to the bottom. Drop your 1/2 oz white or charturse spoon and either snap or just very slowly reel it up off the bottom. If you see the fish start to follow it, snap it up a couple of feet and follow it back to the bottom on a simi-tight line. When you feel the snap, set the hook. Yesterday I could lift the fish off the bottom in big schools, but they would just go back and not bite. If you catch one, the bottom jumps alive. Catch as many as quickly as you can, and they will settle back to the bottom and not bite. It is called locally, making them WORM.

This is confidence fishing. IF you do not have that in your location or your equipment, you are in trouble. You can fish these flats for several hrs. without a bite, and then catch 30 2 pounders in a row. When you are looking at the flats thru your graph, just drop the spoon on anything that seem to be a bit of a rise off the bottom sometimes just a pencil line, is hundreds of fish. Don't move to fast on your troller, just kind of piddle poop around. if you move to fast you will over shoot them.

Look for the locals and the guides from Aunts Creek to Cape Fair, and you will see where they are spooning. YOu can find similar locatons.

I am also catching some out of loose shad schools suspended. Small schools of bait are best. Yesterday there were acre size shad schools up the James and they produced NAADA.

High Prussure clear blue days are completely not working. It is not an early bite either. You can catch them mid-moring till dark if the sky has cloud cover. Or NOt.

I have at least a dozen White Bass trips in the books, and am just scared to schedule them, as they are not completely on fire. I caught 8 yesterday in 4 hrs., I believe I heard Rick LaPoint had a dozen, fishing all day. It is still to tough to take folks money right now.

White Bass and Crappie fishing are meat fishing for the most part and it seems anything less than a limit is a failure. Water temps warmed all week with the hot weather. Should start to cool on Thanksgiving. Perfect temps on our lake are low 50's to 40.

When I quit yesterday the surface temp in the James was 62.

Hope this helps.

[crappieslayer]

Bill,

Thanks so much for your input. I tried hard to see if I could find some white bass over the weekend with no success. I had figured they would be shallow because my neighbor was just up on Stockton a couple weeks ago and pounded them in 6 feet of water. Obviously that is a different lake, but I thought maybe they would turn on on Table Rock as well? Do they move into the shallows during the fall or late fall periods?

I did my best to see if anyone was fishing the flats, but it seemed like everyone was pitching the shorelines for bass. I guess I will have to keep trying. I'm hoping that the white bass still have a hot bite left in em! Thanks again, I appreciate the information VERY much!