Table Rock's White Bass History

[Phil Lilley]

Can anyone figure out white bass and their population fluctuations from year to year? It seems like some years you see whites all over the place in the summer, surfacing and feeding on shad and then others you don't. On other lakes, and the ones I'm thinking of are in Oklahoma and Texas, white bass are always in abundance, almost nuisance fish to some anglers.

I'm going to post this on Bull Shoals forum too because there the swing from plenty to bust to more profound.

Any ideas?

[Phil Lilley]

http://www.in-fisherman.com/2011/12/07/another-white-bass-update/

Ned just sent this to me.

[Bill Babler]

It is a very preplexing subject. For some reason they are never easy and are extremely unpredictable.

When I was a kid in my late teens, the runs were always there in Beaver Creek, and Swan Creek on Bull and were always there on the rock, up Longcreek, the Kings and James Rivers. Now we get the runs, but the fish are very time and weather sensitive. Almost to the point of being like Florida Bass. Any type of a weather front, just knocks the heck out of the Spring runs, turning them off and on.

For the past 15 years, my best bite has usually been a June, December and Janruary bite. In June after the spawn we find them chasing in the mornings on topwater, most every morning. We have also found them in deep cuts around the dam on a spoon. This year was a no go after the last 5 yrs being really good. Not much at all this Summer and when we did find them they were in very small groups aor singles or double.

Our late Fall bite and Winter bite has not materialized this year. Yes, if you are in the right place up the James River, on the right morning (Cloudy) you have about an hour or two of action, from daylight till usually 8 AM. Nothing to speak of in the evenings. The whites are not in the large Winter schools, but scattered in small groups and even in the deep tree tops with the Black Bass.

After the Fall and Winter we had in 09, we all figured it was going to be fantastic. We caught and released 100's of fish. No need to keep anything at all we even suspected was a hen. For the most part, just caught and released them.

Have no idea what causes their disapearance whether they are gone or just hard to find and not where we are used to catching them.

I know it isnot the forage base, as this Fall and Winter I have seen litterly Billions and Billions of threadfin shad. I cannot remember every having this many gulls and diving fish birds this early. Most all lake sections are covered with birds. As I write this I can look out over Clevenger and see 4 huge flocks of gulls diving in different locations. It is not becuase of lack of food.

When we are spooning for Bass we usually catch lots of Whites. I have caught 4, and that is it. Caught them all on the same location, on 4 drops and that was it. Bass are where they should be and lots of your of the 08 hatch. Still have hope for some deep White Bass fishing and have not been on my humps up the White River in a month, so will do that soon and check it out.

For now, its a mistery

[vacation]

Phil, as you know when you and I fish together, I am able to pattern the whites for about 2-3 nights in a row, then they are gone for a while, then they come back, then they are gone. Usually I find them in the main channel swings in 80+ fow in summer...could I go on any given day and graph whites...NO. Not sure where they go, but it seems they are predictably unpredictable

[Dutch]

I have watched them come and go on most of the lakes in this area. Bull Shoals was the most consistent lake for production until 2003 when they died out that winter. They do seem to be making a come back to some extent. Stockton was really good until 3 years ago and got slow. This is the second time I have seen it there. Pomme de Terre had a big die off 2 years ago. Talking to the COE and MDC creel guy I was only able to get a total report of 8 during the 2010 season and this year the creel guy said he only has seen 1.

No one seems to know what causes the die offs but something seems to hit them every few years and nearly wipe them out.

[Guest Buck Creek Mike]

Well, I would guess, (note I said guess), that it has to do with shad population fluctuations. It could be a "chicken or the egg" type scenario, but if shad are down I would think that adversely affects the white bass since they are basically pelagic. Lakes like Grand Lake have lots of White Bass, and they also have lots of shad, so much so that Striper guides on Beaver Lake will go there to net shad when they can't find any on Beaver. It seems like I used to catch a lot more on LOZ than I do now, and it also seems like I would see more shad as well. I think if my theory has any factual basis, you could try to find out what affects shad populations and reproduction. I think those would be things like very cold winters causing a die off, and maybe water fluctuations during spawning that might hurt the spawn. Then again, I may be way off, but I would think that since they basically only eat shad, that is where to start the search.

[denjac]

I caught hundreds of them this summer. The moonshine whites never appeared like years past, they just went elsewhere I guess. There not all dead, there just lurking somewhere waiting to maruade again.

[Bill Babler]

Dutch, did you all see a lot of dead whites floating up there?

As for forage, Table Rock is simply full of Threadfin Shad right now. Have never seen so many orf so many birds working them.

Going to Grand and the Red River for the Beaver Striper guides is a different deal, they are after Gizzard Shad not Threadfin.

The whites on Table Rock are huge consumer's of crawdads, at certain times. Catching them around the new spillway the past few years has proven that, Most of those whites were packed full of small crayfish. Mostly however they are Treadfin eaters.

Just wish we knew.

[Dutch]

No Bill these weren't floaters. They were seen on the bottom by scuba divers.

[innova]

http://www.in-fisherman.com/2011/12/07/another-white-bass-update

The link above may shed some light.