Early spring marks prime season for white bass anglers across Missouri

You can catch a white bass just about any time of the year in the Ozarks, but anglers really get excited about fishing for whites in the early spring when the fish gather in large numbers to spawn.

Recently, a report of small white bass males starting to run up area lake tributaries fired up a lot of fishermen to the "hot spots" where the whites run in the spring. This spawning run has been a popular time for both bank and boat anglers in lakes across the Ozarks including Table Rock, Lake of the Ozarks, Pomme de Terre, Stockton, Truman and Bull Shoals. as well as their tributaries.

Ed Roberts, Springfield, has been after the whites each spring for the past 26 years and said, "I have been at both ends of the spectrum from catching a limit in less than a half hour to not getting a single strike. When you do find them, the action is as fast as you can handle.

"In late March and early April, when the whites are making their spawning run, the fishing is very good. The streams can be loaded with whites.

"There are times I also might catch a big walleye and some crappie. It may be the most uncomfortable time of the year, but when you find the whites, it doesn't matter if its cold, wet and windy. When those fish hit, you are in for a battle, especially when using light gear."

Roberts recalled one special trip on the Kings River when he caught a limit of whites in the 3-pound range.

"The river was low and it was next to impossible to get the boat where we wanted to fish. We tied up the boat and waded up the river to a pool where the whites were holding," he said.

"It took less than an hour before we had all the fish we could carry back to the boat. It was as much action as an angler could hope for."

One late March, while fishing Swan Creek, the bank was lined with white bass fishermen, but not many of them were catching fish. One exception was Charlie Campbell, former basketball coach at Forsyth.

Campbell was catching some big fish in the 3-pound range. He told me to put on a small floating Rapela and cast near some brush.

On my first cast, a big white sucked in the lure and after a hard fought battle with it, I finally brought the fish to my net. It weighed just under 4 pounds and was the first of a limit of whites I caught without moving from the spot.

On another occasion, Campbell saved the day by pointing out another white bass hot spot on Bull Shoals. It was April 1 and snow was coming down, but there were fishermen catching fish.

We had been catching trout on Taneycomo and ran into Campbell, who told us if we wanted to catch whites, they were hitting on the big lake just below the Powersite Dam. We headed that way and it wasn't hard to see where the fish were because there were at least a dozen boats huddled close together and the anglers within were pulling out fish.

It didn't take long for my fishing buddies and I to catch our limit of whites.

It didn't seem to matter what lure was being used. Some anglers were using jigs, while others were using small spoons, Roostertails and Roadrunners.

The word was out that the whites were hitting. As we headed back to the boat ramp, other boats were pulling into the crowd to join in on the hot fishing on a snowy day.

Bob Wallace, Branson, is a white bass angler who said, "When I am on the lake, I look for shad because most of the time, if you see a school of shad, you know the whites are somewhere close. I catch white bass most anytime of the year, but spring is my favorite time. I guess it's because I have been cooped up all winter and my fishing fever is as high as it gets.

I also like to fish for whites in the fall when they are hitting surface lures. One November day, while fishing on Stockton, the cove I was in suddenly exploded with white bass feeding on shad.

You could cast in any direction an hook a fish. It was as good as it gets."

Turnback Creek, near Greenfield, is a popular white bass spawning area that attracts not only the whites, but hundreds of fishermen going after them. When the water temperature starts to rise, the whites move into the creek and are followed by happy anglers from the bank to boats and canoes.

Ned Jenkins, Bolivar, is one of these fishermen.

Jenkins said, "On several trips to the creek, I have seen so many whites that you couldn't make a cast without hooking a fish. You never know just when the whites will move into the creek, but it's always about this time of the year.

"I found my first red mushroom last week and that's when I start getting serious about going after the white bass. There are times the fish turn off as fast as they turn on, but if the fish are there, you can try later and catch them."