Whites Up James

[Tightline]

My son and I put in at Flat creek,and quickly realized we had forgot it was the opening day of spoonbill season..I can't ever remember seeing that many boats from Flat creek to Ashers.It took us a good 1/2 hour to weave through all them to get up there.

2 whites and 3 crappie in 3 hours just wasn't getting it,then the wind started to pick up so we ran back down past most of the boaters to a bank that the wind was just pounding.We started catching whites right off the bat in about 3 feet of water.

We caught 41 whites all together, we released 21 sows and brought home 19 males and 1 sow to eat.

Caught 6 keeper crappie also.

We used 1/8 ounce heads so we could cast in the wind reeling fairly fast with our rod tips high.

Ice colored swimming minnows were the best but smoke also produced along with white sliders.

Here are some pics of the sows compared to the males that we kept.

PS. Don't know how the date on my camera got on march 17,I guess I messed up the last time my batteries went dead.

[motoman]

Very nice report sir; and great pix!......getting into those whites on the James is a hoot!.......way to regroup and find the windblown bank to put something together too.:-)

[vonreed]

Nice report. It's a shame most people don't think like that. It's usually the other way around with the males and females. Usually people are throwing back the males so they can have the females. I'd much rather eat those little males than a 3lb female. I'm surprised you guys didn't catch more crappie, with the way the bite was not to long ago. Thanks for posting.

[duckydoty]

We fished in Flat Creek yesterday. Put in around 4 pm and fished till dark with 3 people in the boat. 3 limits of crappie by dark. There were a bunch of boats out there near point 15 all the way up to the bridge. Not as many up past the bridge but still crowded. Any color swimming minnow with 16th oz head would catch a fish if reeled in super slow. No whites for us, but maybe today. Fixin to head that way.

[Tightline]

Thanks , Motoman and Vonreed,we were kinda on a mission to find some whites and feel some power on the end of our rods for a change.Alot of the females were 18 inchs +, you guys know the power,it was awesome.

There was no way we could've used 1/16 ou heads where we were at, making long cast and throwing cross wind.

At 9:30 am when we put in,I said to myself we're going to have to get lucky today with all the boats,and we did,left at 3:00 pm.

[Bill Babler]

Tight thanks for that greaty report. That is absolutely the way to fish Whte Bass. Let those big sows loose. People take these fish and don't realize the ammount of red meat on those big sows plus all the eggs they are carring. A good pound to pound and a half male is great eating, and you don't hurt a thing.

[Seth]

We caught a couple males up below blunks and then found a few nice sows by longs camp. Ive never caught those 2-3 pound sows before. They were an absolute blast on 4lb test!

[duckydoty]

We found some whites up in Flat Creek today. Some were way up there in 4-5 FOW. No pattern on them, just hit and miss all day. Water temp was 54 degrees.