White bass, walleye fishing picks up in Missouri lakes

Luke Jarman hands Brad White a stringer full of the white bass and walleye the pair caught on a recent trip to Stockton Lake.

Finally, my son, Brad, and I hit the water at Stockton Lake Thursday, in search of white bass and walleye.

We had been talking about making the trip for some time. The clincher came after hearing that Les Jarman and his son, Luke, had been catching both whites and walleye. After talking with Les, who had caught both species the day before, we set out to duplicate his success.

At the dock at Orleans Trail Marina, both Luke and Les had their boats in the water ready to go. "It's going to be a contest between the old guys and the youngsters," Les said.

Brad got into the bass boat with Luke while I climbed into the boat with Les and we set out to find the fish.

On one of his first casts, Les boated a Kentucky bass on a top water lure -- an encouraging sign of things to come.

From that point on, the prospects went from the early encouraging to discouraging as both whites and walleye refused to hit our lures. For the next 15 minutes, it turned out to be a boat ride until Les hooked a big white, followed by several others.

"To catch the big whites, you will have to catch a lot of small ones," Les said.

We felt that we were going to trounce our sons, but then, the catching slowed down for a while. During the next hour, the fish eluded us, so we checked with the boys, who had just boated a keeper walleye.

Les turned his boat around to hit a favorite cove when he felt a tug on his line and said, "It's a walleye." After a brief fight, he pulled in a 17-inch walleye to add to the whites in the livewell.

We were curious about how Brad and Luke were doing, so we headed for their boat. The boys had managed to catch several undersized fish, including a 5-inch smallmouth, along with the walleye.

The action picked up when we hit a cove where the shad were thick. Both Les and I started catching lots of whites by using spoons and rattletraps.

Almost every trip to Stockton, I catch a drum and that day was no exception. While I was using a small Castmaster spoon, a fish hit the lure and it felt like a good white, but turned out to be a 12-inch drum.

Half an hour later, both boats headed back to the dock to compare successes. With the one walleye and six whites, the old timers had it over the boys, who had caught lots of fish, but only had one walleye to show for their efforts.

Most anglers know about how good the white bass fishing in the spring can be as the fish make their spawning runs up tributaries to the big impoundments, but you can catch white bass throughout the year. Starting this month, the whites are working on schools of shad and when you find them, the action is fast and furious.

Ted Morris and Dave Fisher, Branson, hit Bull Shoals Lake last week, searching for the white bass. It didn't take long for them to find them.

Maneuvering their boat into a cove near the dock, Morris tied on a white jig, while Fisher put on a Roostertail and the action started as a school of feeding whites appeared within 30 yards of them. Using ultralight gear, the action was fast and lasted until the pair had caught 16 fish between them, all in the 3-pound range.

"I have always caught my largest whites in Bull Shoals," Morris said. "One spring, I was fishing in Swan Creek and caught six fish that weighed more than 3 pounds each, as well as several in the 4-pound range.

"There have been many times when I have caught my limit in a half hour. Today, while we were setting up, a school of whites boiled the water as they were chasing shad near the surface.

"We grabbed our rods and we both had a fish on the first cast. That's how good the fishing was, but it isn't always that easy.

"If you find a school of fish, the catching can be great. Fishing for white bass on Bull Shoals can really be good in October and November."