White bass

[Skunkmaster-k]

What’s your favorite lure for white bass? Mine is a white rooster tail. 

[Darth-Baiter]

Back in the day.  A Sassy Shad swimbait.  So much fun.  It’s been decades since the caught a white bass. 

[Team9nine]

Inline spinner in the fall; jigging spoon in the summer, and a small jig/soft plastic in the spring.

[Scott F]

Silver, Big Dude blade bait. 

[Jig Man]

1st my homemade buck tail jigs

 

2nd Charlie Brewer’s white pearl grub

[Jmilburn76]

I caught a few small ones last week on a Mepps, a lot of fun on a kayak.

[Skunkmaster-k]

7 hours ago, Darth-Baiter said:

Back in the day.  A Sassy Shad swimbait.  So much fun.  It’s been decades since the caught a white bass. 

It’s a riot when they get fired up ! Not bad mustard fried too. 

[Skunkmaster-k]

4 hours ago, Jmilburn76 said:

I caught a few small ones last week on a Mepps, a lot of fun on a kayak.

You got a sammich stuck on your spinner 

[Bluebasser86]

6 hours ago, Jmilburn76 said:

I caught a few small ones last week on a Mepps, a lot of fun on a kayak.

Looks like a yellow bass, a close relative of the white bass.

 

Either an inline spinner in a shallow creek, or a jigging spoon for deep whites. Finding a school of white bass that is offshore and feeding is a lot of fun. I sat on a school for about 6 hours with my family one day last year and everyone had a blast. Caught a couple nice walleye, some crappie, a few smallmouth and largemouth, and a big gar out of the school too. 

[bulldog1935]

Cats whisker bottom-bounced on a Teeny line

White bass are why I bought my first fly rod at 16

These are all 2-y-o males - I released everything else and finished my last 4 for a bag limit while I was letting friends fillet from my stringer. 

 

 

[bulldog1935]

8 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Looks like a yellow bass, a close relative of the white bass.

 

Either an inline spinner in a shallow creek, or a jigging spoon for deep whites. Finding a school of white bass that is offshore and feeding is a lot of fun. I sat on a school for about 6 hours with my family one day last year and everyone had a blast. Caught a couple nice walleye, some crappie, a few smallmouth and largemouth, and a big gar out of the school too. 

[Skunkmaster-k]

34 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

Cats whisker bottom-bounced on a Teeny line

White bass are why I bought my first fly rod at 16

These are all 2-y-o males - I released everything else and finished my last 4 for a bag limit while I was letting friends fillet from my stringer. 

 

 

I bet they’re a hoot on a fly rod . 

[bulldog1935]

here's my buddy Ewell hooked up

[TnRiver46]

Grub + foodsaver 

[gim]

Apparently they are relatively common around here but I've never caught one in 22 years of fishing this area.

[Skunkmaster-k]

38 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Grub + foodsaver 

Vacuum sealed white grub. 

[Jig Man]

Do you leave the red in the meat?

[bulldog1935]

soak it in ice water (or buttermilk) for a day - the red will pretty much go away. 

 

This is our ice water bowl of speckled trout at Arroyo, but we leave the fillets floating at least a couple of days before vacuum-sealing in meal packages. 

Every day, drain some water and throw new fillets and ice on top - back into the frig. 

 

[TnRiver46]

6 minutes ago, Jig Man said:

Do you leave the red in the meat?

Most of the time, depends on who I’m feeding 

[redmeansdistortion]

We have a humongous white bass run on the Detroit River come May.  One after another all day long, literally.  We have a 12 fish limit and the DNR walks around ticketing people left and right because they are unaware and fill up coolers with them.  Some are so ignorant of the law they will make repeat trips with the coolers while the DNR maintains a watchful eye.  The white bass also like the smaller bays on Lake St Clair, I catch a ton of them in the later spring when fishing for largemouth and smallies.  They will absolutely inhale a 4" Senko on a 2/0 hook without issue.

[Skunkmaster-k]

28 minutes ago, redmeansdistortion said:

We have a humongous white bass run on the Detroit River come May.  One after another all day long, literally.  We have a 12 fish limit and the DNR walks around ticketing people left and right because they are unaware and fill up coolers with them.  Some are so ignorant of the law they will make repeat trips with the coolers while the DNR maintains a watchful eye.  The white bass also like the smaller bays on Lake St Clair, I catch a ton of them in the later spring when fishing for largemouth and smallies.  They will absolutely inhale a 4" Senko on a 2/0 hook without issue.

The limit here is 25 . Not too tough to fill a limit when they’re hangry. 

1 hour ago, bulldog1935 said:

soak it in ice water (or buttermilk) for a day - the red will pretty much go away. 

 

This is our ice water bowl of speckled trout at Arroyo, but we leave the fillets floating at least a couple of days before vacuum-sealing in meal packages. 

Every day, drain some water and throw new fillets and ice on top - back into the frig. 

 

I’ve heard throwing a little salt in the water helps, but I always forget to try it. 

[Skunkmaster-k]

2 hours ago, Jig Man said:

Do you leave the red in the meat?

I do. But if my wife prepares the fish, she cuts the center of the fillet out. 

[redmeansdistortion]

My bad, the limit here in Michigan is 25 fish on the Great Lakes and Detroit/St Clair Rivers, but the poachers still abound due to very large amount of fish in the river.  The white bass really screw with the walleye fishermen at that time of year.

[bulldog1935]

There's really no logic to having a white bass limit. 

[redmeansdistortion]

19 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

There's really no logic to having a white bass limit. 

I agree and not sure why the DNR has a limit on them.  They're literally the locusts of the Great Lakes come spawning time.  Guys jigging the river for walleye get angry because they will have to contend with the millions of hungry whites snatching their crawlers and minnows.