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White bass — the carnival fish
Fisherman line almost elbow-to-elbow below Lake Somerville’s
spillway to catching white bass during the spring spawning run. At
right, a fisherman reaches for the stringer with small but tooth
some white bass. Photos by Lm Roy Leschper Jr.
T/ps for spillway whites
Spillway white bass are as fickle as
spring weather. Some days the whites will
hit any bait cast to them — other days they
stubbornly refuse all the angler’s offer
ings.
The well-equipped fisherman thus has
a better chance of having what the fish
want that particular day. A tackle box full
of jigs, spinners and spoons in yellow,
white, gold and silver colors will serve
well. With a few noisy top-water plugs and
a bucket of lively minnows, the angler can
cover almost any condition.
By starting on the edge of swirling water
below the dam spillway and trying differ
ent depths and retrieves, the fisherman
should soon pinpoint the whites.
P. S. Take plenty of extra baits. Spill
way waters are generally filled with
snaggy rocks ideal for losing tackle.
P. T. Barnum would have loved
Texas’ white bass run.
It’s the zaniest time of year for the
state’s sportfishermen, when mil
lions of white bass feel the spawn
ing urge and head upstream in
virtually every major river system.
Fishermen of all sizes and de
scriptions converge on the white
bass “hotspots” — sometimes
elbow to elbow — and fling all man
ner of hardware and live bait in
hopes of catching a stringer of the
silvery fish.
The annual run starts as early as
March, depending on rainfall and
other weather conditions. It can last
through April, Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department biologists say.
With runoff from recent rains
swelling streams across the state,
the spring white bass run appears
to be in full swing right now.
“I would advise anyone who
wants to get in on the action to plan
to fish in the next couple of weeks,”
said Bob Bounds, inland fisheries
management coordinator.
Biologists and the state’s outdoor
writers generally concur that the
past cold winter combined with
heavy spring rains may have de
layed the main spawning run by a
few weeks.
“Last year we had a dry spring
and the white bass run was pretty
much over by this time, but this eyar
the best fishing should be jsut
around the corner,” said Bounds.
The white bass run represents
one of the department’s most suc
cessful efforts for the sportsfisher-
men. Prior to 1932, the fish were
found only in Caddor Lake and in
river systems in the northeast
corner of the state.
The department — at that time
the Game, Fish and Oyster Com
mission — trasnplanted 13 white
bass from Caddo Lake to old Lake
Dallas in 1932.
From that humble beginning,
white bass populations exploded
and from recreational and eco
nomic view points the fish now ri
vals the much-sought-after black
bass in sport fishing importance —
particularly during the springtime.
Fisheries biologists point out that
whites are caught year-round, but
when they concentrate in tailrace
areas below dams and in tributaries
of lakes they are much easier to
locate.
The best spring white bass
hotspots are subject to debate, and
the fisherman’s luck depends on
such factors as the weather and
time of day or night. But department
biologists say the Trinity River and
tributary creeks above Lake
Livingston may be the biggest
producer, especially for white bass
over three pounds.
In the Brazos Valley, the spillway
below the Lake Somerville Dam is
often a hotspot.
Good areas dot the state and
among these are the Colorado
River above Lake Buchanan and in
tailrace areas downstream below
Lakes Buchanan, Inks, Marble
Falls, LBJ and Travis. The Peder-
nales River above Lake Travis and
the Leon River above Lake Belton
are favorites. The Brazos River sys
tem, which includes Lakes Gran-
bury and Whitney, is excellent for
white bass.
Lake Texoma on the Texas-
Oklahoma border has been and
remains a very good white bass
lake, as has Lake Grapevine north
of Dallas. Lakes Ray Hubbard,
Cedar Creek, Bridgport and Tawa-
koni are good white bass producers
in North Texas.
Anglers catch
new record
The Attwater’s prairie
chicken (Tym-
panuchus cupido), at
left, is in danger of ex
tinction. Unique to the
Texas coastal prairie
and rolling grasslands,
an estimated two to
three thousand birds
are left. The prairie
chicken requires open
grasslands. But farm
ing and overgrzaing by
livestock have de
stroyed most of the na
tive grassland in
Texas. Overgrazing
has led to brush inva
sion on the prairies
and the bird is intoler
ant of brush. This
photo was taken on
the O’Conner Ranch,
18 miles northeast of
Refugio.
Photo by Larry Chandler
bass, striper
Spring has brought a flurry of
new state fish records and a
number of near-misses for Texas
anglers.
Non-native introduced species
grabbed the spotlight. The record
for striped bass/white bass hybrids
was broken twice during March and
a new record smallmouth bass
entered the books.
Austin’s Town Lake yielded a
30-pound striped bass which
missed the state record by only 2
and one-half pounds and 16-pound
northern pike which missed the
state record by only two pounds,
two ounces.
Fisheries biologists were particu
larly pleased with the four-pound,
11-ounce smallmouth caught by
Gene Oldham of Wimberley in Ca
nyon Lake April 6.
One of the shortest-lived records
was established when J. D. Murphy
of Mansfield, La., caught an 11-
pound, 12-ounce hybrid striped
bass from Toleda Bend on March,
beating the old record by four and a
half ounces.
The ink was hardly dry on Mur
phy’s state record certificate when
Curtis Kasner of San Angelo caught
a whopping 17 and one-half poun
der from Lake Nasworthy, breaking
Murphy’s record by more than five
pounds.