White Bass Fishing

[Fishin Fanatic]

I've never been down to grand lake but I have heard good things about the white bass fishing. What is the best time of year to target the whites? I've gone down to table rock the last few years in late march/early april to get in on the white runs there and had some decent success, but I didn't know whether spring or fall would be my best bet to fish for them at grand.

[Bill Butts]

Fanatic,

If you've experienced success with White Bass on the Table Rock fishery, you may have enjoyed some of the largest average size Whites in the entire Midwest.

There isn't a better fishery for large average size White Bass anywhere I know of, even though there are many good fisheries.

The Grand Lake fishery is a very large body of water, and very rich with many gamefish including White Bass and Hybrid Stripers, which are productive to fish for at a variety of tiimes during the year. For many years, I heard stories about massive Spring spawning runs of Whites in the Spring and Neosho Rivers, but never took the opportunity to try my luck. There are many good streams with good spawning runs closer to my home of Springfield.

Several years ago, I finally started making several trips to the Spring River each Spring and to this day I wish I'd been making those trips for all the decades I've fished for Whites in MO and AR. The Grand Lake fishery, including its primary tributaries in the Spring, contains what I believe to be the most impressive population of White Bass in or near the Ozark Region.

The Spring spawning run on the Spring River can start very early in the year, sometimes as early as late February if the winter weather has been mild and river water levels are near normal. My personal fishing journal shows my earliest success on the river was Feb 22 a few years ago. The orgin of this river is in MO, where Shoal Creek also joins this spring-fed river. It is the second largest tributary of Grand. White Bass will stage (congregate)in or near the mouth of the river in late winter, where anglers use boats usually launched at Twin Bridges to access the river channel of both the Spring and Neosho Rivers.

The Neosho River, which flows out Eastern KS (John Redmon Res.) is the largest tributary of Grand Lake and in a normal water year the spawning Whites cannot ascend the river above the small dam at Miami. Similarly, this river also has a massive run of spawning fish though it is rarely clear enough to actually see the fish in the water.

The greatest limiting factor to a successful spring run trip is water level and clarity. The water levels are continually updated on the Tulsa Water District website. My experience has been that ideal water conditions only occur every 3-4 years, but when it is right is fabulous with 50-100 fish days not uncommon. The Spring River is also a wonderful river to wade, with beautiful gravel bars and shoals, especially if you access it by boat to reach some of the ideal water upriver.

Spawning runs seem to last longer on these rivers, too, lasting sometimes until around the first of May. An added potential bonus is the opportunity to tangle with some of the lake's Hybrid Stripers which overlap their run with the latter part of the run of Whites. 690,000 Hybrids were stocked in 2005, and lesser numbers since then, so there are some very large Hybrids swimming that fishery.

There are other minor tributaries that also receive runs of Whites and Hybrids, but they are much smaller flows and more sensitive to local fishing pressures which kind of makes them a little different challenge to fish due to overall size and access issues. Some are excellent in the right conditions.

As for the rest of the year on that fishery, summer and fall fishing on this lake can be fabulous with topwater or near surface baits on mornings or evenings when schools of Whites herd schools of shad into shallow water or up to the surface over deeper water during calm to light wind conditions. These predators can also be found chasing bait on windy points and flats chasing their favorite forage. This lake fishing lasts until the water temps get too cool for the shad which then seek deeper and warmer water, usually late in the fall. You will never find White Bass or Hybrid Stripers very far from a school of shad.

I hope you find this helpful in your efforts to fish the Grand Lake fishery.

Good fishin!

Bill

[Fishin Fanatic]

Thanks for the all the advice Bill. You are right about table rock, the white bass there are well above average size. I can't wait to get down to Grand and chase some whites this year.

[Ranger Dave]

I typically go to the Spring River in late March through the first of May. I have found white bass fishing to be very good there but it is temperamental. I haven't had too good of luck if the water was muddy from a rain and it will stay muddy for several days. I only have the weekends to go there and sometimes it is hard to find a good warm weekend when the water is not muddy. When the temperature and the water is just right, there will be hundreds of boats there and very difficult to find a parking spot at Twin Bridges but it will be worth it. I purchased a lifetime permit in OK about 6 years ago which was worth the money as it only cost $275 and it paid for itself in only 6 years at the cost of current out of state annual permits. I heard they discontinued the life-time fishing permits.

I typically use 2 type of lures on the Spring River. I use Shad-raps (usually silver or shad but sometimes fire tiger) and buck tail jigs (purple, blue, or gray). When they are biting good, I typically catch fish around 14" to 15" lengths.

[fishinwrench]

Y'all are killin' me with all this kinda talk. I hope we get some big rain events this Spring.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Y'all are killin' me with all this kinda talk. I hope we get some big rain events this Spring.

Ain't that the truth, if we don't they'll have no where to run too.

[Quillback]

Went up the Spring river from Twin Bridges one Saturday in March about 4 years ago, did OK, caught maybe 20 whites on a Shad Rap SR5. No big ones, mainly one lb. fish. Only negative aspect is that there are a lot of other fishermen, not only white bass fishing, but quite a few spoonbill snaggers also. Not my kind of fishing, so I haven't been back, but if you can put up with the crowds you'll catch fish if you time it right. It definitely helps if you can get out there during the week.

[Phil Lilley]

I have a friend who lives in Neosho that fishes the Spring 12 months out of the year and catches whites all the time. Not every time but close to it. I've been with him in the winter months, like right now, and caught our limit. We typically use jigs, grubs and swimming minnows and right now fish them very slow. The bite is light and they'll be on the bottom.

[Bill Butts]

Spring River is quite a great area to invest one's time and efforts. We had a very good trip just a month ago, in mid-Dec, catching 75-80 Whites of the one and two year old variety. Nothing larger than 1.5#, but great fun on a winter day. We used sinking fly lines with small Clouser Minnow type patterns, nothing over 2" in length.

The number of Whites in that river channel had to have been incredible as we found them from one side of the channel to the other for a good quarter mile. Several boats that day, including one guide boat, but I'm glad to say all were respectful to keep their distance when moving up and down the channel.

There is a good 5-6 miles of river channel from Twin Bridges to above Highway 10 that has no discernable current when the river is low. There is also good depth in much of the channel, so it must hold bait 12 months of the year for the fish to remain in there. We were probably 3 miles above Twin Bridges, but some friends went the day after our trip and found plenty of fish well above where our success was best.

A note about tackle and line size. While the Whites are easily handled with light spinning or fly tackle and 4-6# line or tippet, don't discount the possibility of encountering Hybrid Stripers of significant size mixed in with the Whites. On fisheries that have Hybrids, Stripers or both, I never use the extra light tackle or line.

Usually a 7 wt fly rod and 8-10# line (tippet). I've found that fly or lure size, and color, is more important than line size. And, it's best to use a good quality hook in your lures or flies, one that is sharp and strong, and can take the abuse of catching many fish and tapping the bottom without easily dulling. They cost more, but you won't need as many if they're good quality.

Last note, the Spring River is usually one of the earliest rivers in our region to have White Bass consistently up in the moving river water. The fish will move up and down with water temperature changes early in the season, but we've found them many times as early as mid to late Feb. Glad to say that time is coming up very soon!!! Good luck to all.

[Bird Watcher]

Spring River is quite a great area to invest one's time and efforts. We had a very good trip just a month ago, in mid-Dec, catching 75-80 Whites of the one and two year old variety. Nothing larger than 1.5#, but great fun on a winter day. We used sinking fly lines with small Clouser Minnow type patterns, nothing over 2" in length.

The number of Whites in that river channel had to have been incredible as we found them from one side of the channel to the other for a good quarter mile. Several boats that day, including one guide boat, but I'm glad to say all were respectful to keep their distance when moving up and down the channel.

There is a good 5-6 miles of river channel from Twin Bridges to above Highway 10 that has no discernable current when the river is low. There is also good depth in much of the channel, so it must hold bait 12 months of the year for the fish to remain in there. We were probably 3 miles above Twin Bridges, but some friends went the day after our trip and found plenty of fish well above where our success was best.

A note about tackle and line size. While the Whites are easily handled with light spinning or fly tackle and 4-6# line or tippet, don't discount the possibility of encountering Hybrid Stripers of significant size mixed in with the Whites. On fisheries that have Hybrids, Stripers or both, I never use the extra light tackle or line.

Usually a 7 wt fly rod and 8-10# line (tippet). I've found that fly or lure size, and color, is more important than line size. And, it's best to use a good quality hook in your lures or flies, one that is sharp and strong, and can take the abuse of catching many fish and tapping the bottom without easily dulling. They cost more, but you won't need as many if they're good quality.

Last note, the Spring River is usually one of the earliest rivers in our region to have White Bass consistently up in the moving river water. The fish will move up and down with water temperature changes early in the season, but we've found them many times as early as mid to late Feb. Glad to say that time is coming up very soon!!! Good luck to all.

Bill, did you go with Robert?