Whites In Full Force Yet?

[buzzbaitr]

Hey guys, i am coming down to beaver this weekend and was wondering if the whites were heating up yet? If so, where have they been active? I only get to come to beaver once a year but i absolutely love the place! Thanks for the help.

[J-Doc]

I have not been on the water enough to say. I was out a few weeks ago but the water temps were still cool. Most of the white activity is up river in the War Eagle arm and upper White River. Due to low water levels, you have to be very cautious. There are many here that keep current with the "running of the whites" so hopefully, they will jump in here.

Glad you love the lake. Welcome and hope you catch a good mess! The overall size seems to be increasing in years past. I recommend a white or white/grey Rooster Tail if the water has any clarity to it. If it's still muddy up river, white and red works well too.

[Jason R.]

I have not been on the water enough to say. I was out a few weeks ago but the water temps were still cool. Most of the white activity is up river in the War Eagle arm and upper White River. Due to low water levels, you have to be very cautious. There are many here that keep current with the "running of the whites" so hopefully, they will jump in here.

Glad you love the lake. Welcome and hope you catch a good mess! The overall size seems to be increasing in years past. I recommend a white or white/grey Rooster Tail if the water has any clarity to it. If it's still muddy up river, white and red works well too.

Im by no means a white bass expert but I have been hitting the upper white with my fly rod- mostly fishing clouser minnows- and it has not been the best season so far. Ive seen plenty of bait fishermen tearing it up with crawfish tails but the bass dont seem to want lures- at least not the ones I was throwing at. The water is loooowwww- so try the shoals closer to the top of the lake. Hope that helps.

[buzzbaitr]

Thanks guys! i appreciate the info. I have been wondering if there is any action on the main lake, we are staying in a cabin on the big clifty arm, same place we stayed last year. Last year we went a week later and found the cove we were staying on was full of feeding whites, any chance we might have the same luck this year?

[Quillback]

There are whites that run in the Indian creek arm and the coves connecting to Indian creek, it's hit or miss this time of year, but hit it right and you can get into them. I would think that if you saw them in the Clifty arm last year they might be in there again this year. A friend of mine has been catching balck bass on topwaters lately, so you might want to bring some Redfins and walk the dog type lures. I like 1/8 oz white or chartreuse/white road runners for whites this time of year.

[Quillback]

There are whites that run in the Indian creek arm and the coves connecting to Indian creek, it's hit or miss this time of year, but hit it right and you can get into them. I would think that if you saw them in the Clifty arm last year they might be in there again this year. A friend of mine has been catching balck bass on topwaters lately, so you might want to bring some Redfins and walk the dog type lures. I like 1/8 oz white or chartreuse/white road runners for whites this time of year.

[Stump bumper]

I have a friend who fished the White down near the 412 bridge yesterday and did not find any whites in the morning. I went out with him in the afternoon and in 5 hours of looking in the war eagle we found one. I saw a guide at PT12 that we fished near for over an hour and they had one good fish on with 8 baited lines out. The river is really muddy right now and between 64 and 68 degrees so I am guessing the spawn is over for the wites and stripers and they are on the move out of the river arms.

I would look more midlake now. The mud had not reached Hickory Creek yet, but was traveling north.

[buzzbaitr]

Thanks for all the help guys! We unfortunately never got into the whites this trip, at least not like last year. We ended up catching 8 total, the good news is we accidentally caught a bunch of walleye right off the dam on saturday night, really nice ones, we caught a total of 8 keepers my biggest was 25 inches. The funny thing is i caught them all off of swimbait fishing for bass, I also had 2 striper on and lost both of them. Still a great trip, just wish we had run into the whites and that i would have landed those striper. There is always next year! Thanks again!

[J-Doc]

Funny, I had the same thing happen to me last spring. Fishing big swimbaits can catching big walleye. Most folks would be tickled to have a 20"+ walleye. I was not. Fun fight and when you think you are about to boat a 6lb bass, I get a bit disappointed when it's a "dorkfish" (all those teeth)

[Stump bumper]

What kind of swimbaits were you using? I have caught just about everything on those little STORM Wildeyed swimbaits but have only caught stripers on larger swimbaits.