Whitebass

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Kayak buddy
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Whitebass

Post by Kayak buddy »

Are the white bass running at george west or medina?

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Ron Mc
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Re: Whitebass

Post by Ron Mc »

way too early for Medina - try closer to Easter.
They're probably running at the state WMA at the mouth of the Devil's River.
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Re: Whitebass

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Oopps
Last edited by Kayak buddy on Fri Dec 27, 2019 10:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: RE: Re: Whitebass

Post by Kayak buddy »

Ron Mc wrote:way too early for Medina - try closer to Easter.
They're probably running at the state WMA at the mouth of the Devil's River.
Have you been fishing Medina? I have a friend who moved near Helotes and wants to hit the pipe creek area for bass and carp. What do you think?


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Re: Whitebass

Post by Ron Mc »

I grew up fishing the Medina, up from the lake in a boat, and camping at Ruede's.
I understand Gene has long-since closed his camp because of a lawsuit over his Red Bluff cable bridge and catwalk (more of a duckwalk).
Also heard English Crossing is not good access because of neighborhood friction, so paddling upriver from Pop's is probably the thing to do (take advantage of the paddle to troll).
Slept under my hat on gravel bars many nights at Ruede's Camp.
Image
Image

I have seen early white bass in the Medina at Castroville - Landmark Inn SP.
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Re: RE: Re: Whitebass

Post by Kayak buddy »

Ron Mc wrote:I grew up fishing the Medina, up from the lake in a boat, and camping at Ruede's.
I understand Gene has long-since closed his camp because of a lawsuit over his Red Bluff cable bridge and catwalk (more of a duckwalk).
Also heard English Crossing is not good access because of neighborhood friction, so paddling upriver from Pop's is probably the thing to do (take advantage of the paddle to troll).
Slept under my hat on gravel bars many nights at Ruede's Camp.
Image
Image

I have seen early white bass in the Medina at Castroville - Landmark Inn SP.
In castroville do they run out of a lake?

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Re: Whitebass

Post by Ron Mc »

No, native fish out of the San Antonio River/lower Guadalupe drainage, and bump-stop at the old mill dam at Landmark Inn.
Needless to say, reservoirs were never the native water for sandies.
Schooling white bass in reservoirs is a phenomenon of the last 50-80 years.
The state stocked them at Flat Rock Dam in Kerrville 6-8 years ago, and you can catch them into summer at any barrier from Center Point to Ingram.
This was June down from Lion's Park
ImageI hooked this fish standing on the waterfall and bottom bouncing the first gravel bar below, then had to follow the fish down to the next bar to land it.
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Re: Whitebass

Post by Kayak buddy »

Thanks

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Re: Whitebass

Post by bones72 »

I have three reports (one completely confirmed) there are some at Colorado Bend State park already this year. An acquittance caught a fair amount of whites and about fifteen crappie a week ago.
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Re: Whitebass

Post by Jimbo_47 »

"Slept under my hat on gravel bars many nights at Ruede's Camp."

I also have fond memories fishing there and that old rickety foot bridge back in the early 70's. I pulled many a stringer out of those pools.....Too bad those days are gone!
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Re: Whitebass

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bones72 wrote:I have three reports (one completely confirmed) there are some at Colorado Bend State park already this year. An acquittance caught a fair amount of whites and about fifteen crappie a week ago.
We get "false runs" when the water goes through 65 degrees on the way down (but no fertile females).
I caught 100 7-8" fish one Thanksgiving freeze at Tejas Camp - there was ice in the shallows along the edge of the flagstone.
Also got into wipers at the sunken bridge 2 miles down.
This is something I've been doing all my life, why I bought my first fly rod at 16, and have given talks on it to Alamo Flyfishers.
PM me your e-mail and I'll send forward my power point.
Image
River flow spikes during drought will also trigger false runs.
We had a summer false run out of Canyon in the 2006 drought -a summer thunderstorm, first flow spike in 18 months, sent whites and stripers beyond Rebecca's Creek and Mueller Falls - caused by the flow spike and aeration - 1200 cfs.
The falling water trapped them in the pools, and we caught whites and stripers all summer long.
Image In really wet years, whites have run from Medina all the way to Bandera before.
Jimbo_47 wrote:"Slept under my hat on gravel bars many nights at Ruede's Camp."

I also have fond memories fishing there and that old rickety foot bridge back in the early 70's. I pulled many a stringer out of those pools.....Too bad those days are gone!
Also at pinch points down from Tejas Camp above Lake Georgetown - think that's my favorite run of all because they really spread out in the pools.
It's a wonderful thing to wake up to them splashing climbing riffles, get up and catch some fish.
A really good March at Tejas Camp with the lake down and the sunken bridge exposed, the whole lake pinched there.
I caught 50 on consecutive casts, flagstone bottom with creeping retrieve - kept 17 - (I only keep 2-y-o males, just my personal choice).
They were spawning on the gravel bar riffle behind me - a female would climb the bar with males chasing her, until the water was so skinny they fell over and flopped back into the shallow flow.
But that dry winter, late run kicked by spring rains was really concentrated and my best result ever, 170 fish in about 12-14 hours of fishing.

Would never say it's a bad idea to get out and explore early, but usually won't find the first little males from hill country reservoirs before February, with the females and shad runs closer to Easter.
Last edited by Ron Mc on Tue Jan 14, 2020 7:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Whitebass

Post by bones72 »

Its amazing how they act different in different water bodies. Have caught them at "the bend" from Thanksgiving on as you mentioned and had always heard about early February runs on the San Gabriel. Here on the Lampasas rain and temp never seemed to matter it was March 6th no matter what; you could set your calendar by it. On the Leon that feeds Belton it could be from the last week in February to the end of March but they seemed to linger more up there as did the crappie and there was log jam up there that was awesome for jigging crappie out of. It was the only place I ever caught black crappie in Texas.

On the drought note; I hope we are not heading in to one. Yes we have had days of rain but not in appreciable amounts, actually been more of a heavy mist, and the lakes and streams are low.
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Re: Whitebass

Post by Ron Mc »

They come to lights at night in all the highland lakes.
We used to catch them in the summer from a boat dock at a camp on Lake LBJ - same with the lighted pier at Inks Lake SP.
The pay fishing piers at Kingsland can be great jigging for them at night, good in the summer, and great when they're staging to run up the Pedernales before the spawn.

We also fished crack of dawn jumps for them on the Lake LBJ structure, pretty much year-round, and got really good at it - we caught 50-fish limits back then.
There's a clockwork jump every afternoon on the rocks at Mansfield County Park on Travis.
I've seen stationary pod fish between runs on the Medina, and a school in a cove on Canyon sipping tricos during a hatch, and you couldn't buy a strike on anything other than a dry fly.
(I've caught endemic bass in tailouts that way, too.)

I've fished Bend many times. While the fish are big, the combat fishing is tough there because of the deep river and limited wading water - of course you can fish from a kayak down past Lemmon's Camp if you can paddle your way back up (or shuttle from Tow).
Tejas Camp spreads over 4 miles of wading water.
Catching white bass is one thing - planning around the spawning runs is another, and I've compiled 40 years' worth of data.
In most of their range, the spawning runs are spread over months, but in our deep, cold reservoirs, the runs are concentrated to weeks - shorter and later after dry winters, longer and beginning earlier after wet winters.
There are 21 2-y-o males on this stringer from Tejas Camp - caught many more, but only kept the two-year-old males.
Image Finished the other four for my limit while I was letting friends fillet from my stringer.

I've also caught five rare 4-y-o males over my life, 19-21". One late-run day at Tejas Camp found one of those with a harem - caught him, kept him on my stringer until I caught and released nine of his females, then released him. This was weeks after everyone else had quit fishing and believed no more white bass were there.
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Re: Whitebass

Post by mmwaggie »

Ron Mc wrote:They come to lights at night in all the highland lakes.
We used to catch them in the summer from a boat dock at a camp on Lake LBJ - same with the lighted pier at Inks Lake SP.
The pay fishing piers at Kingsland can be great jigging for them at night, good in the summer, and great when they're staging to run up the Pedernales before the spawn.

We also fished crack of dawn jumps for them on the Lake LBJ structure, pretty much year-round, and got really good at it - we caught 50-fish limits back then.
There's a clockwork jump every afternoon on the rocks at Mansfield County Park on Travis.
I've seen stationary pod fish between runs on the Medina, and a school in a cove on Canyon sipping tricos during a hatch, and you couldn't buy a strike on anything other than a dry fly.
(I've caught endemic bass in tailouts that way, too.)

I've fished Bend many times. While the fish are big, the combat fishing is tough there because of the deep river and limited wading water - of course you can fish from a kayak down past Lemmon's Camp if you can paddle your way back up (or shuttle from Tow).
Tejas Camp spreads over 4 miles of wading water.
Catching white bass is one thing - planning around the spawning runs is another, and I've compiled 40 years' worth of data.
In most of their range, the spawning runs are spread over months, but in our deep, cold reservoirs, the runs are concentrated to weeks - shorter and later after dry winters, longer and beginning earlier after wet winters.
There are 21 2-y-o males on this stringer from Tejas Camp - caught many more, but only kept the two-year-old males.
Finished the other four for my limit while I was letting friends fillet from my stringer.

I've also caught five rare 4-y-o males over my life, 19-21". One late-run day at Tejas Camp found one of those with a harem - caught him, kept him on my stringer until I caught and released nine of his females, then released him. This was weeks after everyone else had quit fishing and believed no more white bass were there.
Man, you're knowledge of WB is amazing. Would enjoy listening to a presentation of yours. WB on the fly when they're running is a big thrill of mine but I don't have near that knowledge yet.
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