March 3Rd. Short White River Report From Saturday

[Bill Babler]

March 3rd. 2014 Table Rock Lake Fishing Report White River Outfitters

Congrats again to Alex on a wonderful tournament on Saturday, finishing 7th. out of 100 boats. Modified a pattern to his benefit and adapted and caught them. Great Job.

I put in a Eagle Rock on Saturday at 7 AM to just a beautiful 40 degree morning. Surface temps at the ER ramp were 41 degree. Headed up stream to fish some cuts and transitions and just keep out of the way of the derby boys.

1st. cast of the morning netted me this nice 6 pounder on the Rig. Threw it into the bluff cut a 1/2 dozen more times and nothing. Picked up the FB and tossed it to the right hand point of the cut and thumped a very nice 3 pound LM.

Fished 3 other locations up the White River catching 2 more small keeper LM on the jig. At 8:09 the first derby boat came around the bend headed above the Arkansas Line. I presume he had run straight to me. He had it pegged so I'm guessing at 65 MPH that is a full hour run, to just above Devils Dive.

Fished for 2 1/2 hrs. without a bite till around 10:30 Am and was just about to put it on the trailer, when I remembered that my client from Thursday had told me he was catching a few on Gravel.

I pulled onto a long pea gravel point and put the boat in 35 ft. and threw the A-Rig into about 12' bout 1/2 way back it just got hammered. Caught 5 K's off this run-out and 4 were keeps. Had a double on at one point and was trying to grab the phone camera to get a pic and one jerked free. Shucks, would have made a good water picture.

There were tournament boats swarming all over, but none and I mean none were fishing gravel flats. 99% were following each other down the bluffs. Might explain the 45 boats in the derby that either Skunked or just caught a scrawny buck bass or 2.

I had spoken to Alex last week and advised him if he did not know the White it is not a good place to try and learn on Derby day or a single practice day. I'm glad he did not come up there, cause a bunch of those boys were more than disappointed. This is an oxymoron, but the river fishes big and clear. If you have not fished it, it will bite your Donkey. It does not fish like a river, it fishes like a mini-deep water lake, and it did again on Saturday.

Pulled onto the next flat above Big M and did the same deal. This time however they were all LM and I caught 4 solid keepers here. Hit 3 more locations below Big M and caught 2 more short LM and decided to call it a day. Boat on the trailer at 1:30.

Good Luck

[Quillback]

Thanks for the report, interesting to hear that you got some on the gravel points. Pretty cool to get a 6# on the first cast!

[dtrs5kprs]

Hard to tell you how much that is appreciated Bill, especially from KC where it is hovering below 10 degrees today. Reinforces the idea that the gravel is where fish go to eat. Maybe not sea monsters, but quality numbers.

And that is a good point about the White, it is not the Kings or the James. Shocked me the first time I ran up there from Viola thinking I would find the same kind of water.

[Bill Babler]

Dave, thanks so much for the care package. Cannot wait to get Nedding.

Yes, the White River is really not what people would expect. Totally different than the Kings, Longcreek or the James River. Mostly stays gen clear except for algie bloom in the late Spring and Summer, and really to a mini-degree fishes like the big lake although it is narrow like a river.

Fantastic walleye and spotted bass habitat with the long sloping gravel and chunk rock points and flats dumping into the river channel. If you fish it like a river or a stained water way you will be disappointed.

I just love it. I learn something new every time I fish it.

[Sore Thumbs]

Bill. How long do you think that pea gravel bite will last? Is it a temprature thing or a pulling water thing?

[jmes]

Thanks for the report

[Champ188]

Thumbs, not to speak for Bill, but my experience with the gravel bite is that it starts about now, peaks in April or May but stays pretty darn good throughout all the warm months. You have to adjust your depth from 1-40 feet or so depending on the month.

Just about any draggin' bait will work at times ... just gotta experiment and see which one they want most. In the coming couple of months, that's likely to be grub, fb jig, Fish Doctor on a mojo/split shot rig or a Carolina rig with a lizard or centipede.

[Bill Babler]

Sore thumbs, Champ hit her pretty hard here, with some excellent advice. A couple of things on these gravel roll-offs is the location they are to the spawning pockets and for that matter, there is a lot of spawning mostly by K's on these exact gravel locations up the White River.

I will usually as Champ said, target these locations into early April. This is prime grub swimming territory, for both staging pre-spawn fish and foraging post spawners. lots of times these fish suspend in these exact locations, or say the flats start their roll-off at the 20' depth range and drop into the channel, which up there may be 60'

A fantastic location, is just off the break still at the 20' depth range, but just suspended over the channel break.

Table Rock bass do not need structure, if they have depth. The majority of these suspenders will be K's, but it is not uncommon to catch all 3 species of Black Bass in this type of a location. I will also catch walleye at times suspended off these flats up the White.

Early most times we find these fish relating to either the river channel or the bluff end type of structure with deep water near by. When we start seeing them move onto these long gravel locations, and we start picking up K's here, we know if is just about to "Break Loose."

Going back to what we do know, this is more a timing thing, with the ammounts of daylight hrs. being the main factor in play. Lake levels, and surface temps are also important, but hrs. of daytime are much more critical. It is getting very close to those hrs. now, and the fish are changing locations, and moving into a late Winter Spring staging type of pattern. It won't be long now.

Good Luck

[Sore Thumbs]

Thanks for the help. Just curious? If water was stained, would they still be in those spots as long as water temp was good?