White bass spawn in spring, and the spawn generally peaks as water temperatures approach 58°F. Sexually mature fish form schools and move onto shoals, into estuary areas, or into rivers. Most spawning occurs in water temperatures between 55°F and 60°F. But long before that a gradual buildup to a spring feeding bender begins, and that’s what the whitey run is all about.

Early after ice-out in North Country lakes, white bass school and invade the shallows. Patterns often seem to be wind-driven, the wind moving warmer water that attracts the baitfish that attracts the bass.

In the South, white bass stage in deep holes in the lower sections of a river, or in the main reservoir near the mouth of a river. These fish often stay in these areas all winter.

Oklahoma

Gary Dollahon, a fishing industry insider and great angler, has a passion for white bass and chases them often in the waters near his home in Oklahoma. “The run begins in early spring, especially in impoundments that have a flow of water coming in,” Dollahon says. “It doesn’t have to be much of a flow. In lakes like Tenkiller, Broken Bow, and Fort Gibson, most bass move into current to do their spawning.

“Everybody starts looking for whites in March, but April is the most consistent month. On Lake Tenkiller, the Horseshoe Bend is famous. It becomes a camper city when word gets out that the run is on. Day length and rising water temperatures trigger the runs, but rain and rising flow muddy the water and actually set a run back.”

Dollahon begins fishing during winter, looking for the vanguard of the run. “I search the deepest part of the river channel, just above the reservoir,” he says. “I start with a spoon and have a lot of success in water 15 to 25 feet. I use 1/2- to 3/4-ounce flatsided spoons I’ve been making myself. You get more flutter and a subtle fall with these spoons.

“Keep the lure near bottom. The motion is like playing with a yo-yo. Just as a yo-yo or a jigging spoon hits the end of the string, you give the wrist a forward pop upwards. When you time it right you’re only moving the bait about 12 inches, but still producing a pronounced action.

“As the water begins to warm I move into 6 to 12 feet of water. In that early stage of the run, I use 2- and 3-inch grubs on 1/8- to 1/4-ounce jigheads, with 6- to 8-pound line on spinning gear. Depending on the current, I begin casting or quartering upstream, letting the jig drop some then retrieving it at a slow, steady pace. Most of the fish are still bottom-oriented at this point.

“As water temperatures broach 50°F just before the spawn, the fish get really active,” Dollahon says. “The bite is still concentrated in 6 to 12 feet of water, but I switch to a shallow-running crank like a #5 Rapala Shad Rap. It’s a great spring bait because it resembles a shad, you can move it fast, take the most active fish, and cover water. The rivers hold thousands and thousands of fish at this point, and just plucking the most active ones can still result in 100-fish days. When that’s going on, you can fish almost the entire river, but a protected eddy is always a good place to start.

“Here, a 3-pound white bass is considered a good fish,” he says. “A 5-pounder is pretty rare. Tenkiller, Grand Lake, Fort Gibson, Lake Eufala, and Lake Hudson are the best lakes in Oklahoma, as a rule. You want the water running and you have to call the dams for release schedules. A good day on those lakes, during the heat of the run, is 100 to 200 fish per boat per day, with bass averaging 1.5 pounds or more.“

Kansas

Just one state north, the run starts a week or two later but location is much the same. In-Fisherman Field Editor Ned Kehde also starts hunting them during winter, when conditions allow. “We’ve found white bass concentrated in several deep holes in the rivers above some of our northeastern Kansas reservoirs as early as March 2,” he says. “When all is well in the piscatorial world, we can catch 101 in about three hours. That’s our magic number, our goal, from late winter into early spring.

“These holes are 10 to 15 feet deep. Some say that white bass concentrated in these holes in March and early April are staging, but we don’t have any evidence to support that. The whites are merely there, and we catch them, but we don’t know what their motivations are for being there. It could be that these areas have the best invertebrate populations, which the white bass forage heavily in March and April.

“We cast 1/16-ounce jigs with 2- or 3-inch action-tail grubs in white or chartreuse to the shoreline and slowly swim them back to the boat,” Kehde says. “Red jigs generally produce best. We also use a 1/16-ounce silver-gray jig that consists of a chrome head, silver tinsel body, and silver-gray marabou tail. White-blue-white is another good combo in Kansas. I mention it because color can sometimes be critical with white bass.

“They move out of these holes to their river spawning areas in mid-April, sometimes a little earlier or later. Spawning usually peaks when the water temperatures reach the upper 50°F range, but often continues until the water is slightly over 60°F. I still don’t know if moon phases affect the spawn.

“In three of the reservoirs, we think a lot of the white bass reside in primary feeder rivers year-round,” he says. “But for the past five years the white bass population (at least our catches of white bass) in these rivers has been down. Consequently, our prespawn and postspawn fishing in the rivers hasn’t been as good as it was in 2000, and we can’t make our goal of catching and releasing 101 white bass in three hours.” (Kehde thinks Kansas needs to place a 5-fish limit on white bass but fisheries folks think that’s a cockeyed idea.)

“At times, when the river and lake levels are right, a good number of white bass leave the main body of the reservoir and move up the rivers to spawn; but our knowledge about this phenomenon isn’t based on any hard evidence. Few studies have been done. We do know that in John Redmond Lake a significant number of main-lake white bass attempt to travel up the Neosho River during the spawning season. They’re stopped by a logjam that typically blocks the entrance to the river about this time each year. Many of these bass spawn around that logjam as a result.

“When white bass in northeastern Kansas spawn in the river, it’s in current around rocky riffles or riffles created by logjams or some kind of current break,” Kehde confirms. “More and more of our white bass seem to be lake spawners that use rocky shorelines. Favorite spawning sites on the main body of all these reservoirs include riprap causeways, jetties, and dams.

“Nowadays, we spend most of our April and early May outings pursuing the main-lake populations, and normally their spawning rituals take place before Mother’s Day. Traditionally, May 5 is a great time to find some heavy-duty spawning action on the main body of the reservoirs of northeastern Kansas. We don’t know if they actually feed during the heat of their spawning rituals. Piscatorial lore says that they don’t, but we’ve caught scores of female and male white bass releasing eggs and milt while we fished the main-lake spawning sites.

“In the rivers and on the main bodies of the reservoirs, we fish the shorelines during the run,” Kehde says. “To fish the light jigs, we use medium-action spinning tackle spooled with 6- or 8-pound braided line and a 5-foot fluorocarbon leader, attached by either a J-knot or a Seaguar knot. We use the same jigs on the main lake as on the river. When the wind blows we sometimes have to use 1/4-ounce Blakemore Road Runners, Cotton Cordell Spots, Gay Blades, and Worden Rooster Tails.

“Chartreuse is the most productive color. When using a jig, a slow and steady retrieve allows the jig to glide and swim as if it’s in a suspended state—at times, occasionally creating a delicate triple twitch similar to working a jerkbait in cold water for largemouth bass, as the jig slowly swims or glides along. This twitch is similar to the way we twitch a jigworm in cold water; a series of delicate S-curves radiate along the line from the rod tip to the lake’s surface.

“When using the 1/4-ounce lures, the retrieve is quicker, perhaps because the wind forces an angler to fish faster. Still, a slow-to-moderate retrieve is best. And like the delicate twitch of the jig, a periodic pause in the retrieve or a significant pop of the rod tip with your wrist pays on some outings.

“Windswept shorelines can be key,” Kehde says, “as white bass are following forage fish that stay in contact with the warmest water possible. A windsock is handy at times, allowing us to move slowly along a shoreline, propelled by the wind, and we also control the boat with the bowmounted electric trolling motor.

“Moving slowly with the wind also keeps the bow out of our lines, which otherwise would prevent us from executing a proper retrieve. Moreover, when we deploy a windsock, we can often use a small jig rather than a 1/4-ounce Road Runner, Rooster Tail, Gay Blade, or Spot. The smaller lures are key when you can use them.”

Farther North

Some of the biggest white bass (also called “silvers”) in northern states live in some of the lakes of the Dakotas, portions of the Missouri River in the Dakotas, in the Winnipeg River of Manitoba, in select portions of the Great Lakes, and in the upper Mississippi River. Joe Jackson is a white-bass enthusiast from Minnesota who primarily works the Mississippi River in and around the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

“Before the run, bass hunker down in wintering holes in the pools and in the main river channel. We catch them through the ice all winter using jigging spoons like the Acme Kastmaster, the Hopkins Smoothie, or the Northland Buck-Shot Rattle Spoon on 4-pound mono. The pools run 25 to 28 feet deep.

“Right at ice-out, which generally takes place around the middle of April, the bass are already starting to move into shallower water. As soon as the water warms into the high 40°F range, the fish respond pretty well, but become most active after the water broaches 50°F—generally in May. White bass spawn in late May up here, most years.

“In the Mississippi, current is more of a factor than wind in determining location,” Jackson says. “Shad ultimately determine location. When the water hits 50°F, shad and other baitfish start moving around and white bass follow. At that point, I toss crankbaits. Rat-L-Traps and other baits cast a mile and can be worked fast. I cover a lot of water fast. During this prespawn feeding peak, if you contact fish, they’re usually feeding. No need for finesse. Again, this magic period begins at about the 50°F mark.

“Another good bait is the new, smaller version of the Rapala X-Rap. White bass are one of the first fish of the year to react to a topwater, too. When they’re hitting a Heddon Zara Puppy up here, it doesn’t get any better than that. Whites start ripping topwaters when the water’s in the upper 40°F range. It’s another great way to locate a school.

“The shad are always moving, so  expect to have to keep moving, too. Watch the surface, looking for baitfish activity. When the river hits 50°F, the hunt is mostly on shallow flats, starting at 8 feet and searching right up to the bank. When the river floods, white bass go right into the trees, where it’s tough to get a lure to them. But high muddy water doesn’t slow the bite.

“I use both baitcasting and spinning tackle with 8-pound-test mono,” Jackson says. “You could use much lighter line, but I don’t because I hate retying. You could get away with 10-pound, actually—white bass aren’t line-shy at this time. And poppers and streamers fished with a flyrod are just as effective as cranks and topwaters.

“The fishing from the Ford Dam down to Hastings, Minnesota, is phenomenal. Three-pound fish are pretty common and 19-inchers happen every so often, though few people target them, because the walleyes are so huge and numerous on the Mississippi. A good day is 75 white bass; I know that’s an understatement, but I don’t want to exaggerate. Even a 50-fish day is a good time.

“And you’re going to be sporting scars. Silvers are the hardest fish anywhere to unhook without getting cut. They’re like smallmouths, only more aggressive. If white bass jumped, they’d be the most prized fighter in freshwater. They don’t ever give up.”