It’s fitting that Monday is April Fool’s Day the way spring has disguised itself as winter so far.
No matter how chilly it is in March, the question anglers ask is, “Are the white bass running yet?”
Reports from the water indicate that white bass are still in the starting gate.
All it will take is a warm rain or a few warm days to send them charging out of Beaver Lake and up the White and War Eagle rivers.
Cotter bills itself as trout capital of the world. Beaver Lake may be the white bass capital. Beaver Lake and its tributaries are the only Arkansas waters where there’s no limit on white bass.
Ron Moore, area fisheries biologist with the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission, said the white bass spawn is so successful some years that Beaver Lake can have too many white bass.
The no-limit strategy is to let fishermen keep as many white bass as they care to clean to thin the herd.
It could be awhile before the white bass run is really on. The ideal spawning temperature for white bass is 57 to 68 degrees. It’s in the high 40s now.
Once the water temperature climbs into the 50s, male white bass swim upstream first, followed by the larger females that anglers seek. Now’s the time to get ready.
John Hodge at Hook, Line and Sinker fishing store in Rogers said the top-selling white bass lure is a Lit’l Fishie. It’s a soft-plastic minnow that looks like, well, a little bitty fish.
Live-bait anglers use minnows or crawdads.
Fly fishers swear by the Clouser minnow. Most lures or flies that look like a minnow ought to draw strikes from white bass.
With no limit, the white bass run is a fine opportunity to fill the freezer with great-tasting filets. White bass are delicious, provided they’re cleaned right.
Each filet has a strip of red meat down the middle that should be removed.
It’s nasty. Even my tom cat, Boat Dock, won’t eat it. Striped bass and hybrid stripers have the same redmeat strip.
Cut this out and your filets are ready for the Fry Daddy, the oven, however you like to cook your fish.
We got a good white-bass report this week from J.D.
Fletcher of Eagle Rock, Mo., who keeps tabs on the fishing at upper Table Rock Lake.
Anglers have caught several white bass in the Roaring River arm of Table Rock. A white Rooster Tail is the favorite lure of white bass anglers over at Table Rock, Fletcher said.
Rain that’s in the forecast the next day or so could be warm enough to get the white bass run started at Beaver Lake.
FLIP PUTTHOFF IS OUTDOORS EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.
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Outdoor, Pages 6 on 03/28/2013