White-River Bass: Artificial Baits Your Best Bet For Aggressive Strikes
Story and Photos By Darl Black

Call them crazy, but many anglers really enjoy fishing for white bass. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the striper's little cousin is often very aggressive, usually willing to bite when other species have lockjaw in the heat of mid-summer. In addition, white bass eagerly strike a variety of artificial lures, so live bait is not required. The large schools common with white bass also mean continual fish-catching action. Plus, white bass put up quite a tussle on light to medium-weight tackle.

Keep in mind that white bass are a nomadic species with minimal needs. They have no special requirements for structure, cover, water color or depth. Their only concern appears to be an ample supply of proper-sized preyfish for food. Because white bass like to utilize current to their advantage when feeding on prey, these fish are particularly at home in large rivers across the country.

Mississippi River Madness
"White bass have never disappointed my customers," notes Minnesota guide Steve Dezurik, who can almost guarantee white bass action on the Upper Mississippi River during July and August.

According to Dezurik, any hard structure that breaks current has the potential of drawing white bass to feed. Bridge abutments, retaining walls, riprap shorelines, gravel beds and rockpiles are all potential spots for fish to ambush preyfish. The tailrace water below dams is also an excellent spot.

"But upcurrent of wing dams is by far my most productive area," Dezurik says. "The white bass schools may be right on the current break on the face of the dam, or they may be 25 to 30 feet farther upstream. It depends where the shad are, but the stronger the current, the more aggressive whites you will encounter."

A jighead with a soft-plastic grub or a hair jig is all that Dezurik normally employs when taking clients out. He acknowledges that topwater chuggers and crankbaits will produce, but single-hook lures allow for safer and speedier fishing.

"Keep it simple," Dezurik suggests. "White is the best all-around color. A 1/8- or 1/4-ounce jig is perfect — either an action-tail soft-plastic grub like a Yum Walleye Grub or a Jimmy D River Bug. Cast it out and reel it in fairly quickly. Do not pump or add any fancy movement to the jig. When one of these baits moves at a good clip within a couple of feet of the surface like an escaping shad, white bass will usually run it down even if not actively feeding."

Dezurik's white bass combo is a Shimano Stradic 1000 with a 6-foot-6-inch medium-light-action St. Croix Avid rod.

"It's a great combo — light enough to have a lot of fun, but heavy enough to handle any large game fish that tags the jig," he says.

Cumberland River Capers
Guide Jim Duckworth may be better known for crappie, smallmouth bass and striped bass, but when the summer slump hits middle Tennessee, he turns his clients onto Cumberland River white bass.

In the high heat and humidity common during his summertime trips, Duckworth frequently chooses to troll for white bass. For this technique, he employs medium-action Berkley Lightning Rods fitted with Abu Garcia Torno reels and 20-pound Spiderwire Stealth.

"I would rather cast for whites, but you might end up with heat stroke if you do that," he says. "I troll Bandit crankbaits with light-action rods and use braided line for its no stretch quality, which is very important when you have a lot of line out. The heavier diameter also gives you a fighting chance should you hook a stray striper."

Trolling no-stretch braided line does something else, too. It makes a strike from an aggressive white bass feel like you have hooked a freight train.

Duckworth agrees with Dezurik that a white bass bite is largely dependent on current, which positions shad and allows white bass schools to corner their prey. Just like on the Mississippi, white bass in the Cumberland gravitate to wing dams and the turbulent tailrace water immediately below dams. However, Duckworth also finds white bass in other areas.

"The mouths of inflowing creeks and water discharges are good areas to focus on," adds Duckworth. "Shad stack up there to feed on plankton, and white bass feed on the shad. Other excellent areas are the edges of shallow flats that drop into the main channel — basically mud or sand flats. Shad move onto the flats to feed, so whites lie along the edge to attack when shad drop back into the channel."

It's the channel breaklines and inflowing current seams of creeks that Duckworth prefers to troll.

"You cannot always predict where the shad are going to be, so sometimes you may troll some distance before encountering a feeding melee," he says. "However, the shortcut to finding active white bass is to watch the gulls. When gulls begin diving, you know the white bass have forced baitfish to the surface."

When casting for whites, Duckworth chooses either a crankbait or a jig. He relies primarily on the Bandit 100 in chrome/blue.

"It's the perfect size, shape and running depth for white bass," Duckworth explains. "While I'll catch greater numbers of white bass on a Road Runner blade jig, I catch better quality whites with a crankbait."

Duckworth's crankbait combo is a 6-foot-6-inch light-action Fenwick casting rod with an Abu Garcia Revo STX reel spooled with 12-pound Vanish.

"It is a light enough rod to have fun with whites, but heavy enough line to reduce the chance of breaking off baits," he says.

A Grand Experience
Few anglers are as hard-core about white bass fishing as Gary Dollahon, who manages public relations for several major tackle firms.

"Aggressive is a white bass's middle name," he says. "This is the fish I use to introduce people to their first fishing experience."

Those who have been lucky enough to fish for white bass with Dollahon know how easy it is to lose count of the number of fish that have been landed.

"That's another reason why I like fishing for white bass," explains Dollahon. "When the conditions are right, you can just keep on catching them until you are worn out."

Dollahon's favorite summer fishing areas on Oklahoma's Grand River are the ledges where the shallow shoreline flats meet the river channel. He has found that the stronger the current, the better the fishing will be, because the flow positions both baitfish and white bass.

"Small gizzard shad of course are the key prey," Dollahon says. "Shad schools roll up and down the river, followed by schools of white bass. But at some point each day, the shad move onto the shallow flats. The white bass then wait along the drop-off for the shad to swim back out."

The defined main channel is 20 to 25 feet deep, and the depth at the edge of the flats will be 5 or 6 feet. Dollahon claims the critical depth for catching white bass is the drop from about 6 feet to 12 or 15 feet.

"A 1/2- or 3/4-ounce jigging spoon is without question my most productive lure," continues Dollahon. "I generally use a pearl-white slab-style spoon that I make myself. Among the name-brand spoons, I particularly like Mann's Mann-O-Lure and the Hopkins Shorty in hammered chrome."

Dollahon keeps his boat over deep water, making short pitch casts onto the flat. Then he works the spoon down the breakline with a lift-drop jigging retrieve.

"I employ a Quantum Tour Edition 6-foot-6-inch medium-heavy rod with a Quantum Accurist reel that has a flipping switch," he adds. "The flipping switch allows me to release line with one finger as I yo-yo the spoon down into deeper water. Yet as soon as I release the switch, the spool will be immediately engaged for a solid hookset. I do not need to turn
the handle."

When current is really rolling, Dollahon checks bridge pillars for whites, too, fishing the spoon vertically along the abutments and the trailing downstream current seam. But during slack water or slow current flow, pillars are usually not worth the effort.

While spoons perform nicely for working steep breaklines and vertical structure, they are also ideal for surface schooling activity as well. The heavy spoon allows for incredibly long casts to breaking fish. A speedy rip-reel retrieve can draw vicious strikes.

"Because of its versatility, I believe a jigging spoon is the perfect summertime white bass bait," Dollahon says.

No matter which game fish species you prefer to pursue during the summertime, take the advice of some veteran fishermen and never turn down an opportunity to fish for white bass.