Low water White bass.

[Flysmallie]

7 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

When you are catching mutts you'll notice 3 things.....

#1- The line pattern is dark and distinct, but different on every single fish you catch.  And tooth patches are all over the place.....some have a single patch, some have 2-3 patches, and some don't have any tooth patches at all. 

#2- They often have weird spasms when you grab them, they actually vibrate like they are having a heart attack.

#3- When you release them they don't recover and swim away very quickly.....and often go belly up within sight of where you released them.  Might as well throw them on ice if you're keeping a mess because they'll die in a livewell immediately.   

#3 is the reason that bothers me the most, because pure White Bass are pretty hearty and aren't so easily killed.   Mutts seem to die easier than a dang shad !   

All of these remind me of all the white bass I caught as a kid on Texoma. Maybe they are all mutts at this point. 

[fishinwrench]

4 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

All of these remind me of all the white bass I caught as a kid on Texoma. Maybe they are all mutts at this point. 

On Texoma they might be!   

I still catch plenty of what I consider "Pure" white bass here on Lake O.   But their days are probably numbered.  In another 10-20 years they'll probably all be genetically modified to some degree. 

[BilletHead]

2 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

On Texoma they might be!   

I still catch plenty of what I consider "Pure" white bass here on Lake O.   But their days are probably numbered.  In another 10-20 years they'll probably all be genetically modified to some degree. 

              I did an experiment once on pure white bass in Stockton Lake up the tributaries. These fish are pure without any influence from stripers or hybrids. On your number two statement on the spasm deal. I found with 100 percent certainly that they all spasm at a point on how hard you squeeze them depending on the size. Little squeeze on little fish big squeeze on big fish. Some go belly up and some do not. I also noticed dingy water lateral lines were faded and in clear water very prominent. In your waters I think it is mostly clear so this is probably an irreverent point to your study.   😁      I do think it is cool that you are so passionate of this fish. Become a whistleblower and get things changed. I have still not seen such behavior on where I fish but only caught fish upstream in your lake below Truman dam. Many years ago, like in 40 years and paid no attention to much of anything that far back. 

[jdmidwest]

TN ones did the goofy livewell roll.  But they would straighten out and swim right.  All alive when they hit the ice.

Last trip, it was too warm.  I iced them all at the start.

[fishinwrench]

On 4/18/2024 at 3:24 PM, BilletHead said:

I found with 100 percent certainly that they all spasm at a point on how hard you squeeze them depending on the size. Little squeeze on little fish big squeeze on big fish.

Well there's a twist.   I'll have to pay attention to that.   I typically grab them across the head, gently holding the gill plates shut....which is the only way to immobilize a White/Hybrid to unhook them....and keep them from hurting me. 😅 

@BilletHead Are you talking about squeezing the gill plates harder than you need to in order to just hold the weight of the fish......or squeezing them elsewhere? 

 

The whole vibrating fish thing was the very first thing I started noticing that clued me to the realization that......Some of these Whites aren't quite the same.  After that I started looking at tongue patches, lateral lines, and counting fin rays. 

[fishinwrench]

The rain helps !  👍 

[jdmidwest]

I would have thought they would have dropped those eggs by now.

On the St. Francis Drainage, they are usually done by this time.

[Dutch]

We found a mix on the ones we caught yesterday on Beaver.  Some were large enough to surely be females with flat bellies and some still had bellies full of eggs.

[fishinwrench]

Today's FOD 😎 

[Alex Heitman]