Anyone Seen Any Whites Busting Topwater In The James Yet

[abkeenan]

I would think its getting close to spillway/moonshine beach time for the whites. The schools there are just MASSIVE. A couple of years ago my uncle and I were right in the middle of the largest school of whites I have ever seen right there at the spillway. It was about the size of a football field with them just going ballistic on shad on the surface for about 10 minutes nonstop. Both had our limit of fish in that 10 minutes. Hard to find anything more fun that whites when they come up and feed. Fight like absolute mules too, fun fun fun.

[9LB]

I caught this slab on Sunday trolling. It weighed 2.96 pounds. I am a Stockton guy and have NEVER seen a white this big. I fished the KVD all day and this was my best fighter. They must grow them big on the Rock !

[dtrs5kprs]

I caught this slab on Sunday trolling. It weighed 2.96 pounds. I am a Stockton guy and have NEVER seen a white this big. I fished the KVD all day and this was my best fighter. They must grow them big on the Rock !

There are an awful lot of solid 18" whites in TR. Gets kind of silly for a while every summer, but dang they roam around, and do so in an eye blink. Those fish log some serious miles. Good times when you get some close to you.

[Sam]

If you like smoked fish, I've found that big white bass smoke REAL well. (Yeah, I know - it's hard to keep 'em lit.)

When I used to fish the Pacific Ocean in California, there was a fish market on the way home that used to trade smoked ocean fish, 1 lb. for 3 lbs. of our fresh-caught fish. For smoking, they only wanted the oily, fishy-tasting species like bonito, mackerel, barracuda. Milder-tasting fish like calico bass and halibut didn't smoke so well and anyway those were good eating just fried.

Since big white bass are pretty oily and fishy, especially if you leave the red meat on, I figured they'd make good smoked fish. This spring I've found that they do - real, real good!

I filet them out and soak the filets in a salt brine for a few hours in the 'fridge. Then rinse and soak the filets real well in fresh water to get the excess salt out. The salt brine firms the filets and gets them ready for smoking. I turn one burner of our gas barbecue on low, put a smoker box with wet hickory chips on top of that burner, and put the filets on the grill far away from the fire. Close the barbecue lid and slow cook/smoke the filets for a couple of hours at about 200 degrees. They'll be golden brown when done, and you can tell they're ready with a little nibbling / sampling. I think this would work just as well or better with a charcoal barbecue.

I like good smoked fish, and I have fun catching fish that put up a great fight. That gives me all kinds of motivation to go after these big whites again tomorrow before the jet skis / party boats run me off the lake.