Relentless Search for whites

[Flysmallie]

Me and @Harps had plans to hit the Lil Sac on Saturday determined to catch some fish. We didn’t check the gauge at Morrisville until we were well on our way. 469cfs. Weird. It had jumped to almost 1,000 over night and it was a lovely shade of brown when we arrived. Our plan was to paddle upstream. But we decided this was not the place. So we took off in search of some better water. 

First to Hulston Mill access on Turnback. It was like the ocean. We weren’t going to paddle that safely. 

Next was 160 access. But it didn’t look much better. 

Headed over to the Sac. Saw some surface activity and it looked promising but not enough to put in.

Map check. Here’s a spot on Turnback we never been to. So back to Turnback we went. Looked good. Water was clear. Gear up. So it’s around 3 by now and we have the discussion about paddling up like we had planned or go down. @Harps called down and away we went. We got maybe a mile or a little more downstream and Jeff found the spot. We took turns in his spot. He’d catch a fish and while he was stringing it up I’d make a cast or sometimes two and hook up. We just kept repeating this until around 6:30 when we decided we needed to get back to the truck. Current was strong. Fighting a headwind. Cold. It was awesome. 

We carried out 18. But we could have easily limited our and probably caught somewhere close to 30 fish. All caught on clousers. Tan/chartreuse chartreuse/white orange/chartreuse red/pink. I don’t think they cared. 

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[BilletHead]

           Good fishing and report Ronnie. Thanks. Ready to find more myself. Depends on the turkey hunting results,

BilletHead

[Bill Butts]

 That was a great report!  A very good example of how important it is to be persistent and always have a plan B, C and so on.

Many would have never fished at all once they saw the muddy water, and some would have tried the muddy water and then quit.

Great job in being "relentless"!  

BTW, did you check the water temp where you fished, and possibly on the Little Sac, too?

If you keep a journal of your experiences, water temp is a very important factor to track in the early spring. 

[Flysmallie]

Thanks Bill. I did not check the water temp. I wish I would have but I’m bad at keeping journals. Maybe it’s time to change.

[fishinwrench]

It's lake surface temp in the shallows that matters, since those fish have to pass over the flats to get up the creeks.  

Take your average high and low air temp for the last 4 days, add them together, then divide by 2. 

A few warm days and a rise in water level from a decent shower will shoot them right up the creeks.  The higher the rise in water level.... the higher up they'll go.     You can have whites all around you and not get a bite until after 3:pm, that's just the way they roll.

[bologna]

Nice, I tried on the little sac Saturday and couldn't get them too bite

[bwcballer10]

We too planned a trip for saturday. I kept an eye on the Morrisville gauge until 1am when I went to bed and it read 170 cfs. Needless to say I was shocked to see it at 873 when I checked it at 5 am on my way to the river. Well I had this trip planned for 2 weeks so we're going no matter what was the attitude. We put the boats in at 215 to dirty water (it was crystal clear prior to the rain) not a good sign. At least we should be able to catch some fish out of Slagle was the thought. When we got to and past Slagle without a bite, everyone was pretty sure the skunk was happening today. My buddy finally caught a little one out of a small creek. We pulled out in front of the creek and caught a couple out of the muddy water as well. After that point we could find a fish or 2 in most of the slack water we passed. Ended up with 27 between 5 of us. Definitely not the best fishing trip I've ever been on but I was pretty pleased given the horrible conditions mother nature had so gratiously given us. On the bright side this rain should make them finally go crazy next week.

[willcroskey]

I went Thursday to Taylor and people was catching them right and left we ended up taking home 20 and a walleye water temp ranged from 58-62 the eggs in the females are not developed completely yet so should be good for awhile still 

[bologna]

Its like they only bite when I'm stuck at work

[fishinwrench]

27 minutes ago, bologna said:

Its like they only bite when I'm stuck at work

The coolest thing about White bass is that as long as you can get to them 2 hours before dark you stand an excellent chance of catching a limit.