Hottest weather brings out the fight from native species

White bass, like this one caught by the author on the Ouachita River, inhabit most of the state’s lakes and rivers.
(Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
White bass, like this one caught by the author on the Ouachita River, inhabit most of the state’s lakes and rivers. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)


All fish are biting right now, including the pugilistic white bass.

Beloved but often overlooked, the white bass is native to Arkansas. Unlike the largemouth, smallmouth, and Kentucky bass, which are sunfish, the white bass is a true bass, a smaller relative of the striped bass.

Like salmon, the striped bass spends part of its life in the ocean and migrates into tidal rivers to spawn. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission stocks striped bass in Arkansas waters, but they do not reproduce naturally in great numbers except in the Arkansas River.

The white bass is native to inland waters. It inhabits slow, stained rivers in the Mississippi River Delta and Gulf Coastal Plain as well as highland rivers and lakes in the Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains. The Arkansas state record white bass weighed 5 pounds, 6 ounces, and was caught in the Mississippi River. An average white bass weighs less than 2 pounds, but I have seen them as large as about 3 pounds at Tenkiller Lake in Oklahoma.

Catching white bass is easy, but finding them can be difficult. They follow schools of shad. If you see birds diving at the water, they are pouncing on schools of threadfin shad. White bass are always beneath the shad, attacking from the bottom and pushing them to the surface while birds attack from above. When this happens, the smallest white bass in a school attack shad on the surface. Bigger white bass feed below the surface. The biggest white bass in a school are below the school, conserving energy by eating wounded, dead or stunned shad.

Schooling activity can last a few minutes and up to a half hour. Anglers fishing from a boat watch for schooling activity. Binoculars help anglers determine which direction the school is moving. They position the boat well ahead of the advancing school, turn off the outboard motor, use an electric motor to position the boat, and then cast into the fish as they approach.

If you motor into a school or advance on it from behind, the disturbance will disperse the bait and cause the white bass to sound -- descend below the surface. When that happens, white bass will continue to harass and corral the baitfish. They will force it to the surface somewhere else, often a very long distance away. Anglers that fail to position ahead of a school will waste a lot of time chasing fish but not catching fish.

White bass lures

When properly positioned, you can catch white bass on the surface with any kind of surface plug, like a Whopper Plopper, a Zara Puppy or any kind of chugging type plug. These fish are the most fun to catch. They hit hard and cause a lot of surface turmoil. It's also possible to catch two at the same time.

Again, the biggest fish are below the surface. To catch them requires a lure that will get below the surface fish before they can attack it. Small spoons are best. Big white bass often follow a fluttering spoon to the bottom and then attack it when you begin retrieving.

Small, deep-diving crankbaits are also excellent for catching sub-surface white bass, as are inline spinnerbaits. The Blue Fox and Vibrax are best. With their heavy bullet head, you can cast them a long way, and they run at depths that put them in proximity to big fish.

Finding white bass

You will encounter exciting schooling activity on any reservoir in Arkansas. Greers Ferry Lake supports a healthy white bass population, as do Beaver Lake and Bull Shoals Lake. Lake Maumelle has great white bass fishing, as well. In South Arkansas, lakes Greeson and Millwood are fantastic. Lake Gillham, is unknown, but it is very good. I have even caught them in irrigation reservoirs in the rice country of southeast Arkansas.

The most frenetic white bass fishing occurs in creeks and small rivers during the spawn. That happens in February and March. The white bass spawning run into the Big Maumelle River above Lake Maumelle is one of the year's most widely anticipated fishing events in central Arkansas. The fishing is also excellent in the Big Maumelle below Lake Maumelle. Access to that water is difficult, so a lot fewer people fish it.

Anglers in Northwest Arkansas equally look forward to the spawning run out of Beaver Lake into War Eagle Creek, Hickory Creek, Prairie Creek and especially in the White River up to the Lake Sequoyah tailwater.

Above Lake Ouachita, white bass follow walleyes and stripers into the upper Ouachita River in March and early April.

In the Fort Smith Area, the white bass run into Vache Grasse Creek near Lavaca is legendary.

White bass also concentrate in massive numbers below the dams on the McClellan-Kerr Navigation System. It requires moderate to heavy flow to concentrate bait. When white bass are present, you can catch all you want from the bank with tandem twister-tail grubs. White and yellow is the most popular combination.

In the summer, you can experience very good white bass fishing in the Arkansas River and White River. During high flow, white bass concentrate behind the tips of wing dams or at the edges of revetments. The best way to catch them is to position a boat inside of a backwater. Cast a crankbait into the river and retrieve it quickly. White bass will bite the lure as it clears the lip into the backwater or sidewater.

White bass gear

Tackle for white bass fishing is not specialized. A light or medium-light action rod will coax the fight from the smallest white bass, and it will make fighting a big white bass exhilarating.

A 1000 series spinning reel spooled with 6-pound test line is sufficient for any white bass. You will not be at a disadvantage with 8-pound test line. I use a flourocarbon leader to help lures sink a little quicker and to eliminate the line optic in the water. White bass are not generally line-shy, but they can be in clear water. White bass are hit-and-run artists. They hit hard and shock a knot. They pull hard and surge with a lot of force and acceleration. Set your drag to withstand the stress of their abuse and enjoy the fight.

White bass abuse line, so retie often. They will bite throughout the hottest weather, long after other fish have gone deep for summer vacation.


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