Do Any Of You Guys Fish For White Bass?

[MultiSpeciesFisherman]

I live about 2 hours north of Lake Shelbyville, Illinois and it has a ridiculous population of white bass. They get into really shallow water in the fall...about 2 feet or less...and hit absolutely anything you throw at them. There is no limit on how many you can keep since their population is so large in the lake. The last three times we have gone, we kept 74, 50, and 89 whites and I know there are people who catch and keep more than that regularly. They are a ton of fun to catch as they fight really hard for a smaller fish, and they are absolutely delicious if you know how to clean them. I don't hear them discussed very often though. Do you guys ever target them?

[Marty]

I haven't gone after them in years. But some time ago I used to go to this place where there was a possibility of encountering schools of them. I was fortunate to find such schools from time to time and it was a blast with them hitting on almost every cast. The light outfit with 4# line made it even more fun. These schools were mixed white bass and white perch.

[rockchalk06]

Lately that is all I have been catching. In Central Oklahoma, the LM population is way down to lakes setting limits of over 17" and only allowing to keep 4 to bring back the numbers.

The white bass/wiper/hybrids as they call them here, are mega fun to catch. They fight like crazy. Guys have been catching them on just about everything in there box, but top water is the king.

[Bluebasser86]

I fish for them if they're up shallow and schooling but I'd rather fish for bass. They're such a pain to deal with on a treble hooked bait and I have no interest in eating them. They fight hard and are willing to bite when they're shallow but I bet bored with them quickly because they're so easy to catch. I'm glad they are popular with the meat eaters around here that keep everything they catch so they don't take as many short bass as they usually are otherwise.

[MultiSpeciesFisherman]

The outfit we use to catch them is actually a 2-jig setup. We use two quarter ounce jig heads with 4 inch twister tails, one tied about 18 inches up the line from the other. I usually tie on a Blue Fox Vibrax Spinner as my trailer jig in the fall though because that gets the attention of the walleye that tend to follow the whites around. I even caught a 44 inch muskie last year using this set up. The good thing about the 2 jig rig is that when you hook into one white bass, you reel it in slowly because the others think the one you have is chasing bait fish and you can get a second one hooked at the same time. It gets pretty fun reeling in 2 at a time as strong as they are.

[tholmes]

I used to fish for white bass a lot, especially in the spring when they make their spawning run in the rivers above the area reservoirs. Ultra-light spinning rig and a pocket full of maribou jigs, spend all day wading the river and you could catch as many as you could carry. Crazy fighters and pretty good eatin' too.

Tom

[RyneB]

i used to fish for them all the time on the Illinois River, but then the asian carp took over this stretch of river and the white bass are non existent. I used to be able to have 100+ fish days. I have gone 2 years only catching 1 single white bass. Where are you at in central Illinois?

[MultiSpeciesFisherman]

I live in Pontiac...about a half hour north of Bloomington-Normal or about an hour and a half south of Chicago.

[AK-Jax86]

I've never caught a white bass before I caught a striper though they have some white on em

[fishingkidPA]

there are a lot of white bass in downtown Pittsburgh. I had one pushing 3 lbs that i caught on a popper. good fun. they smash the lure like a smallie, after about 5 seconds in though they give up lol. i'd fish for them any day though

[RyneB]

i know exactly where pontiac is at. We used to play them in baseball all the time. Im in LaSalle.

[Siebert Outdoors]

I do sometimes. This year at Lake St Clair the first few days of our trip the fishing was like you said. We caught so many whites we got tired of it. It didnt matter if we were in 30 fow jigging for walleye or on the bank. We easily caught over a hundred a day. Reel one in 10-20 followed. Every cast we caught one on the bank. The lure most of the time didnt stay in the water more then 5 seconds. Most of the time it was hit once it hit the water.

[MultiSpeciesFisherman]

i know exactly where pontiac is at. We used to play them in baseball all the time. Im in LaSalle.

You live not too far from one of my favorite lakes to fish. I go to LaSalle Lake all the time and catch big blue catfish. The one thing I wish I was better at on LaSalle though is striper/ hybrid fishing. I would love to learn how to catch them at LaSalle.

[roadwarrior]

We catch them all the time and spend a day or two in the spring targeting the fish.

For some reason the limit was reduced a couple of years ago to 15, down from 30.

I would prefer to have no limit on whites and spots.

[MultiSpeciesFisherman]

We catch them all the time and spend a day or two in the spring targeting the fish.

For some reason the limit was reduced a couple of years ago to 15, down from 30.

I would prefer to have no limit on whites and spots.

Does the body of water you are talking about have stripers or hybrids present, or were they recently stocked? Sometimes lakes that have both hybrids and whites end up with stricter limits on whites because most people can't tell the difference between the two when it's a small hybrid.

[Nice_Bass]

Does the body of water you are talking about have stripers or hybrids present, or were they recently stocked? Sometimes lakes that have both hybrids and whites end up with stricter limits on whites because most people can't tell the difference between the two when it's a small hybrid.

You should make a trip to clinton as well- many more wipers and stripers. Good pop. of whites though as well. If you want an even shorter trip Evergreen has large populatios of whites as well and is only 15 minutes or so from you. I usually just find the bait, and fish following the schools around. Fall is great as well-they shock up record musky every year from evergreen. Only promblem is the lake is only 900 acres- so can get a bit borning. Clinton I find to be the best midstate lake.

[MultiSpeciesFisherman]

You should make a trip to clinton as well- many more wipers and stripers. Good pop. of whites though as well. If you want an even shorter trip Evergreen has large populatios of whites as well and is only 15 minutes or so from you. I usually just find the bait, and fish following the schools around. Fall is great as well-they shock up record musky every year from evergreen. Only promblem is the lake is only 900 acres- so can get a bit borning. Clinton I find to be the best midstate lake.

I don't really like Evergreen because I prefer to boat fish and my 125 hp motor is slightly over the lake limit lol.

As for Clinton, I have put it on my to-do list to try that lake out. I fished it a couple times when I was younger and didn't have any luck which kind of left a lasting stink in my mind about that place. But I would definitely like to learn to fish it for wipers and stripers. Do you have any experience with them? If so, any tips or techniques you would be willing to share?

[RyneB]

i fished LaSalle back when i was 12. That was the last time i was there. I have been wanted to go, but everyone tells me its always packed with people, and i dont like dealing with a packed lake.