White Bass?

[Sam]

Lilley - Thanks for starting this Forum. I've had some good fishing trips by following your tips in the past and want to thank you for that, too.

A comment. It might be time to remove that bit in the Bull Shoals header about great white bass runs. I wish it was so.

As you know, white bass have been all but extinct in Upper Bull Shoals since the Fall of 2002. For the first couple of years after the white bass crash, there seemed to be improved crappie fishing as a result. In 2005, though, it seemed to me that the void is mostly getting filled by enormous numbers of shad and gar.

I did catch a couple of very short (5") white bass this summer though, so maybe there's hope of the good spring runs returning in future years. But for now, they're not happening.

[crappiefisherman]

you are correct.THERE HAS BEEN LITTLE WHITE BASS ACTIVITY IN THE K DOCK AND SURROUNDING AREA FOR COUPLE YEARS.i did come across a large school this summer in flats by ramp but next day nothing to be seen. The gar are everywhere, and I honestly didnt see a lot of kentuckies surfacing this year.I am very happy with the crappie in the area and notice numerous beds in the k dock area out of the water now.I caight more keeper crappie then culls every trip. I also am very appreciative in the walkway at the kdock ramp.No more wet tennis shoes firswt thing in the morning.Any one notice that a gar tap and a crappie tip are close,,,,,but the gar really gets your attention on ultra lite.

[powerdive]

Yup--but with UL gear, it's hard to get much of the hook point buried on a gar!!

[Wayne SW/MO]

There was a fair run in Swan last Spring, but they came in one day and the creek blew out the next.

[CaptainT16]

Just wondering what happened to the White bass down that way? I have never fished BS except right below Powersight. Just wondered what happened to the great fish?

[Sam]

Just wondering what happened to the White bass down that way? I have never fished BS except right below Powersight. Just wondered what happened to the great fish?

Captain - I don't know what happened to them, though I've been asking everyone including MDC biologists ever since it happened.

All I've heard for sure is stories of how white bass have gone through boom and bust cycles in other lakes.

In 2002, and especially by that fall, I'd never seen so many white bass as Upper Bull Shoals held. They were mostly 14-inchers and were sometimes so thick you'd scope them as a 10 foot bottom in deep water spread over several acres.

Then in the spring of 2003 and since they were almost gone. It seems that if all those millions of fish had died at once, we'd have seen them floating - but no one ever did.

I've read that any area of water is capable of holding a certain total weight of "biomass", and that's what it's going to hold. According to the fertility of the water, it will support the same weight of living things - whether they are sportfish, algae, mud turtles, or whatever.

I'm afraid something basic has changed in Upper Bull Shoals, and I hope it's not a result of pollution. The weight of the "biomass" is there all right - but an awful lot of it is now taken up by shad and gar.

[Phil Lilley]

I attended a couple of public meetings hsoted by MDC - one was over in Taneyville/Forsyth in which the place was packed... and there were a bunch of MDC people there.

They basically said they didn't know what happened to the white bass. But they were encouraged by their data in 04 and 05. BS had a great hatch in 03 when the water was high all spring and summer (I think it was 03). I believe this year will be a good year for whites on BS.

But- I remember back in the 80's, in the fall, going out and seeing acres and acres of surfacing white bass on the flats down by Mincy/Drury area. It's been nothing like that since.

[Chris]

I was fishing in wolf creek? this summer near Beaver Creek. We had a decent size school of whites come through they were small thought 1-2#'s My buddie caught some but the scattered rapidly.

[Wayne SW/MO]

My theory is that they revolve around the winter water temperature and Spring rains. They need a good population of Threadfin, which is helped by warmer Winter water temps. They need a good clean flow in the creeks to spawn. When we get high discolored water the eggs don't hatch properly and the spawn is scattered in the water column, making them vulnerable to predation.

Lakes to our southwest rarely see Shad kills and they have huge populations.

[Phil Lilley]

I've heard that thread fin shad come to the surface and stay there allowing predator fish to eat them readily. And there a shad called "bottle nose" or something like that that come to the surface and then dive. That aren't as easy to eat. BS has alot of the bottle-shad and few thread fin- so I am told. That's why you don't see the surfacing feeding like you used to and when you do, they don't come up for very long.