White Bass Fishing on the Spring River

[Ranger Dave]

1 hour ago, Ham said:

Gnashing my teeth at travel restrictions from work 

are you limited to the State Line as well?  I am.  I think it is ridiculous.   I can travel anywhere I want to go inside the State of Missouri.  I can drive over 317 miles and go to the hottest Covid-19 places and I am not even required to tell my supervisor or anyone else at work.  But if I drive 90 miles west of here and cross the State line, then I am quarantined from work for 14 days.   Several co-workers went to Branson over Spring Break along with travelers from all over the state and didn't even say a word.  You know those virus' are just waiting at the state line to jump all over you.  

[Ham]

1 hour ago, Ranger Dave said:

are you limited to the State Line as well?  I am.  I think it is ridiculous.   I can travel anywhere I want to go inside the State of Missouri.  I can drive over 317 miles and go to the hottest Covid-19 places and I am not even required to tell my supervisor or anyone else at work.  But if I drive 90 miles west of here and cross the State line, then I am quarantined from work for 14 days.   Several co-workers went to Branson over Spring Break along with travelers from all over the state and didn't even say a word.  You know those virus' are just waiting at the state line to jump all over you.  

Exactly the same and maybe worse, if I am exposed to a known COVID 19 patient, I still am to report to work until I develop symptoms. If I go fish in OK w/o stopping anywhere else in the state, 14 day quarantine 

[ollie]

I must be missing something here. You can travel outside of Missouri the last I heard. If that isn't the case then I know several people who have violated that including me! Of course for me it is only about 30 minutes to cross the state line and into OK. Pretty sure OK and MO doesn't have a travel restriction between both states. Of course I don't know about your work and what they expect either. My wife is an RN who works at Mercy and they told her if she went out of state she would have to quarantine for at least 3 weeks. My employer just told me to use good judgement wherever I go. Ah, I just realized both of you are in cities with shelter in place. I am not at the moment.

[Bgctrading]

We just got back. We caught some but they were scattered. I am afraid they don't seem like they are going to pile in like they did last year.

[WoundedOne]

I just got back also. But i disagree about the staging part. I think its just not blown up yet. Water temp 58- 59. I saw boats that never left the spot for hours. Those spots are the one have been known for staging fish. I went up from 10c and fished a few known locations and nothing. the wind decided to make a change to how we were fishing so we went down to pole line and hit a few spots and caught 1 that was it. Water is high and dirty. I am hoping that we do not get any rain tonight. I may try and hit it again in the morning. Hope this helps someone..

[ollie]

I went down yesterday and only managed to catch one from the bank. Water is still a little high and running pretty good. The fish are in there and I did see one good stringer from a couple of guys on the first gravel bar upstream, but there really wasn't much room out there to get more people on that gravel bar. Most of it is still underwater. Tried walking up to the second gravel bar, but I was unwilling to cross the creek via a downed tree. Saw people crossing it though so I don't know how they made out up above there. This clumsy old man didn't want any part of that!  lol  Right now it looks like hit and miss from what I could tell. I am seeing more posts about people catching though so that is positive at least.

[ollie]

It's on like Donkey Kong! Went yesterday after work and tore them up. Always a good sign when you get to the gravel bar and two people have fish on at the same time. I met a buddy of mine that lives over in Bernice and we got to the water at just about 5. I was going to put the waders on, but glad I didn't now because I would have burned up in them last night. So we walked on down the path and didn't see as many people as I have in the past down there. Thought that was a little odd since it was such a nice day. Normally that place is packed! Did see tons of boats up the river fishing though. So we get down to the gravel bar and I start throwing a rooster tail in chrome and nothing. Guys and gals around us catching fish, but not me. Being stubborn and all I keep it on for a  while until I can't stand it anymore. Nothing. My buddy ties on a curly tail grub in a gold type color and has one on right away. Game changer there for me. I tie on a different color rooster tail and I catch one right away too. Both of our first ones where females you could tell. Well, I keep throwing that color rooster tail and he keeps throwing the grub, but he is out doing me big time. I catch another small male and he keeps catching bigger fish! By 6:00 his stringer had a dozen good size fish and he decided to just head home and clean those. I said, "there is no limit on these you know"? he said he didn't want to carry more weight back to the car! lol I can see what he means know. After he left I search my small tackle box I brought and found a ginger colored jig I had left over from the last trout trip. Once I tied that on I started tearing them up as well. I caught another dozen or so before I lost that jig and then I tied on a different color. Nothing again. That was the go to color last night. I ended up leaving by 7 since I wasn't catching anything again. Most other people I saw catching fish were using a plastic grub as well in another color, but the gold type color was the ticket for us. 

[ollie]

Did one of you guys catch them all out of there? lol Went back again on Sat. morning and right as I was pulling in it started to rain and rain hard for about 10 minutes or so. Got out of the truck and went down to the first gravel bar again where the action was on Wed. night. Wasn't crowded this time so I just chalked it up to the rain. Boy was I wrong! Family of 4 down there when I arrived and they said they had caught 2 dinks and that was all. They left about 30 minutes later and I had the place to myself for a little while. I don't remember now how many different lures and colors I tried but I couldn't buy a bite! Some other people finally showed up and they didn't stay long either. Nothing, zero, zilch, nodda, just plain not happening today. I ended up getting skunked there for the first time in a long while. It was a bummer to say the least. I talked with some guys in a boat of 3 people and they had only managed 9 between them in a couple of hours. SSSSlllllooooowwwww.

[fishinwrench]

21 minutes ago, ollie said:

Did one of you guys catch them all out of there? lol Went back again on Sat. morning and right as I was pulling in it started to rain and rain hard for about 10 minutes or so. Got out of the truck and went down to the first gravel bar again where the action was on Wed. night. Wasn't crowded this time so I just chalked it up to the rain. Boy was I wrong! Family of 4 down there when I arrived and they said they had caught 2 dinks and that was all. They left about 30 minutes later and I had the place to myself for a little while. I don't remember now how many different lures and colors I tried but I couldn't buy a bite! Some other people finally showed up and they didn't stay long either. Nothing, zero, zilch, nodda, just plain not happening today. I ended up getting skunked there for the first time in a long while. It was a bummer to say the least. I talked with some guys in a boat of 3 people and they had only managed 9 between them in a couple of hours. SSSSlllllooooowwwww.

That's typical white bass fishing.   I don't know how many times I have messaged friends to tell them "it's ON" only to have them come down the next day and get skunked.     

I know that in my 5 favorite spots you can go without a bite all day if you aren't there from 4pm until almost dark.  They can be there and just flat out not bite or chase anything.....then suddenly turn on and you'll limit out in 15 minutes.

[snagged in outlet 3]

1 hour ago, ollie said:

Did one of you guys catch them all out of there? lol Went back again on Sat. morning and right as I was pulling in it started to rain and rain hard for about 10 minutes or so. Got out of the truck and went down to the first gravel bar again where the action was on Wed. night. Wasn't crowded this time so I just chalked it up to the rain. Boy was I wrong! Family of 4 down there when I arrived and they said they had caught 2 dinks and that was all. They left about 30 minutes later and I had the place to myself for a little while. I don't remember now how many different lures and colors I tried but I couldn't buy a bite! Some other people finally showed up and they didn't stay long either. Nothing, zero, zilch, nodda, just plain not happening today. I ended up getting skunked there for the first time in a long while. It was a bummer to say the least. I talked with some guys in a boat of 3 people and they had only managed 9 between them in a couple of hours. SSSSlllllooooowwwww.

I had a similar experience....  EVERY TIME I WENT.  Except I caught a trout once.  And of course it was a 4 hour drive each way, each time...  Vile creatures.