Post by reelteacher on Feb 24, 2009 22:19:07 GMT -5
For those who have the cabin fever as much as I do, we really look forward to this time of year. Here in a matter of weeks the native white bass will begin making their seasonal spawning migration from their home waters in large lakes and reservoirs upstream where they will spawn in the cover of darkness with thousands of their kin. This can and often does lead to the fastest and most furious non-stop fishing of the year.
White bass are members of the temperate bass family and do not build nests to spawn over, but rather the females simply broadcast their eggs in the current of their natal waters and the males eagerly spread their milt over anything that they can in this orgy like display of survival of the fittest. If you haven't seen this, it is amazing! Most of the time the bass do this in the middle of the night. I have only had the opportunity to see this once on the Roanoke river in N.C. The stripers were spawning and it was about 2am. About 20 bass at a time would surface and swim around and on top of one another and make a huge racket, throwing water 3 feet in the air and just go crazy for about 10 seconds, and then submerge and be gone. Then another group would surface, and do the same thing. Again, just one of those things you have to see for your self to understand the magnitude of the event.
Anyway, I digress... So, white bass inhabit any large reservoir in Indiana, Freeman, Shafer, Morris, Geist, Eagle Creek, Salamonie, Raccoon, etc. The tailwaters below the dams of these big reservoirs also as the young of the year and get pushed through the dams. The white bass typically will spread out and head downstream in search of forage in the summer time, but in the fall and again in the spring, they will head upstream looking for easy food, such as shad die-offs, or to spawn. Well, the dams are the end of the line, and congrate the bass below them. This is usually the easiest fishing because it takes out the guess work for locating the fish.
Fishing upstream of a major reservoir is a little more difficult, but once you find the fish, then it's game on. Look for deep holes with plenty of current or swift water nearby. unlike smallmouth at this tme of year, whities will be in the deep current, behind big rocks or current breaks. Use white streamers with weighted eyes and sinking or sink-tip fly line to allow your fly to get to the bottom of this swift water. Try several types of retrieves including just a down and across swing, once inch strips against the current, full foot strips, strip and twitch, keep your fly moving. Make it look alive or injured give it erratic motions. Don't just keep doing the same thing over and over, unless it's working for you. Try one retrieve for 2 min. then change, and keep changing retrieves. In fact, for white bass the fly choice is really not the most important factor. It is how you present your fly that is. White bass can be picky. Sometimes they want it slow, other times fast, sometimes a hop works, still others, steady is the ticket. It all depends on the day, hour, minute you are fishing.
But once you find that combination, hang on! Because you are in for some serious fun and excitement. There is one thing really fun about white bass fishing and that is their strike. They will nearly rip the line right out of your hand as they pummell the fly. And then you'll miss one, and another one will hit the fly right after that, and then it's game on!
Top places to go are Wabash River, in the ponds right behind Williamsburg on the Wabash Apartments, Tippecanoe river, below Oakdale and Norway Dams, Big Raccoon Creek above Raccoon Reservoir, Eagle Creek above Eagle Creek Reservoir, and many others. You just have to find them... Good Luck.
If you find the fish, please let us know by posting when and where in this board. Thanks! I'll do the same.
White bass are members of the temperate bass family and do not build nests to spawn over, but rather the females simply broadcast their eggs in the current of their natal waters and the males eagerly spread their milt over anything that they can in this orgy like display of survival of the fittest. If you haven't seen this, it is amazing! Most of the time the bass do this in the middle of the night. I have only had the opportunity to see this once on the Roanoke river in N.C. The stripers were spawning and it was about 2am. About 20 bass at a time would surface and swim around and on top of one another and make a huge racket, throwing water 3 feet in the air and just go crazy for about 10 seconds, and then submerge and be gone. Then another group would surface, and do the same thing. Again, just one of those things you have to see for your self to understand the magnitude of the event.
Anyway, I digress... So, white bass inhabit any large reservoir in Indiana, Freeman, Shafer, Morris, Geist, Eagle Creek, Salamonie, Raccoon, etc. The tailwaters below the dams of these big reservoirs also as the young of the year and get pushed through the dams. The white bass typically will spread out and head downstream in search of forage in the summer time, but in the fall and again in the spring, they will head upstream looking for easy food, such as shad die-offs, or to spawn. Well, the dams are the end of the line, and congrate the bass below them. This is usually the easiest fishing because it takes out the guess work for locating the fish.
Fishing upstream of a major reservoir is a little more difficult, but once you find the fish, then it's game on. Look for deep holes with plenty of current or swift water nearby. unlike smallmouth at this tme of year, whities will be in the deep current, behind big rocks or current breaks. Use white streamers with weighted eyes and sinking or sink-tip fly line to allow your fly to get to the bottom of this swift water. Try several types of retrieves including just a down and across swing, once inch strips against the current, full foot strips, strip and twitch, keep your fly moving. Make it look alive or injured give it erratic motions. Don't just keep doing the same thing over and over, unless it's working for you. Try one retrieve for 2 min. then change, and keep changing retrieves. In fact, for white bass the fly choice is really not the most important factor. It is how you present your fly that is. White bass can be picky. Sometimes they want it slow, other times fast, sometimes a hop works, still others, steady is the ticket. It all depends on the day, hour, minute you are fishing.
But once you find that combination, hang on! Because you are in for some serious fun and excitement. There is one thing really fun about white bass fishing and that is their strike. They will nearly rip the line right out of your hand as they pummell the fly. And then you'll miss one, and another one will hit the fly right after that, and then it's game on!
Top places to go are Wabash River, in the ponds right behind Williamsburg on the Wabash Apartments, Tippecanoe river, below Oakdale and Norway Dams, Big Raccoon Creek above Raccoon Reservoir, Eagle Creek above Eagle Creek Reservoir, and many others. You just have to find them... Good Luck.
If you find the fish, please let us know by posting when and where in this board. Thanks! I'll do the same.
