# SS report 6-27 White bass fishing



## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

The Mighty Red-Fin with trapperjon and I took out of beautiful Beacon Bay Marina with new timers, Rick, Maria, and Alonzo.

The weatherman had it all wrong and a stiff west wind faced us as we headed out. It made fishing difficult today, as it gusted a lot and pushed the boat off of the fish, that were tightly schooled and not as active as yesterday.

We did hit a good bite or two putting 35 white bass in the boat before the wind blew us off the lake.
The white bass have been gorging on what i believe to be baby carp, schools of hundreds can be seen scooting across the surface making big Vs in the water like mullet. 
In all my life I have never seen white bass feed exclusively on anything but shad, glass minnows, ghost minnows and silver-side type minnows.
I have no idea what is going on, but we have not cleaned a white bass with anything in their stomach's but these small fish for a week now, never any shad in them.
I threw the cast net at the ramp at Beacon's two nights ago at 3:30 am and only caught baby carp, no shad.
I'm not at all sure about the ID on these little fish, the only thing that makes me doubt the carp ID is the lack of barbels, which may be just too small to see yet.

It was good to have new folks so many times this week, and the fish have been biting well.
I have the 10th, 12th, and 13th then from 18th to the end of the month open.
There is no telling what will happen the next couple of weeks fishing, typically this is a changing time of year for south end fishing with striped bass starting to kick off some top water action.
Let's hope there are still plenty around to stretch a string.

See you on the water.

SS


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## 3StoogesFishing (May 4, 2010)

Good Job SS. I think you are right they are feeding on different types snacks. It was a soft bite this morning and you and John did a good job as always. That wind came up and we too called it a day. Fun times by all.


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## Ducktracker (Aug 1, 2011)

Great job in tough conditions. Went to ramp on 2457 and turned around and went back to camp.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## markbrumbaugh (Jul 13, 2010)

You the man SS. Reckon the shad got blitzed this yr?


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

You have a very clear picture there. Maybe post it in TTMB for "Fish ID" and see what results are?


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Mark I think the original crop of baby shad bit the dust, too much dirty water suffocated then with silt in their gills. sunbeam had mentioned that as a possibility in an earlier post. 
What the long term affect is unknown to me, shad pull of nearly continual spawns throughout the warm months, so if they did lose a generation they should rebound fast.
Meanwhile if they are carp they will be too big to eat for a white bass in a couple of weeks. Already the small bass can barley get their mouth over one.


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## Boomhauer75 (Jan 3, 2010)

Great report Loy! I had Matt with me today and you are right the weatherman had it all backwards. We found a great school on a ledge around the island. Just as we were getting into them really good the waves started building and coming over the bow at times. We headed for smoother water on the east side of the island and the bite just was not there. 

Oh well still had a good time fishing with my great friend Matt the past two days! The ride back to the state park reminded me of a six flags ride!

While cleaning the fish we also noticed they were full of those baby carp. Never seen that before.

This just goes to show you that you do not mess with Lady Livingston when the waves start building!


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## KevBow (Mar 18, 2011)

Weird looking fish. Don't really look like a carp to me though. However they do look like great catfish bait!!!


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## KevBow (Mar 18, 2011)

Looks like a shad and a yellow bass hybrid


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

The west wind has been rough the last couple of days. I took to many to count over the bow yesterday. I almost brought these carp up about a week ago. The water in front of Kickapoo was working alive with them. Depending on what type carp this is it could be good or really bad


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

Loy I was catching tons of juvenile stripers before this last flood but I did not catch a one on my last 2 trips ?? Could this have been the die off? I didn't see any dead fish on my trips ???


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Kevbow if you could see them in person you would see that they don't look shad or minnow like at all. They are getting big too, today we cleaned some average size white bass with big ones in them, two or three, and it looked like it was a hard job to get them down their gullet they were so big compared to the white bass.

It's real interesting, as I have fished for white bass since I was 6 years old and as soon as dad learned how to fillet (all of the fish used to be scaled) he taught me and I filleted all of them after that. And I've never seen white bass gorge on anything else besides shad/silver-side/ghost minnows. And if they are carp there must have been one super spawn!
Conditions were just right for a great carp spawn.
Flooded shallow grass from all of the high water.

I think many of our lake stripers went through the gates, I hope I'm wrong, but I fear they did.
I have seen Lake Livingston go from a super striper lake to well below poor in a few weeks of high discharge at the wrong time. The it takes three years to recover at all.
And because of that I centered my business around white bass, which either we get new ones from lakes up north and the river, or they recover fast enough so that you can catch fish, they may be small for couple of years, but big enough to fill a cooler. 

Those are just my opinions and I hope I'm wrong about the stripers.
When the real serious striper fishermen start going after them and posting some reports we will get a better idea of how they made it, or not.
I've always been an opportunistic fisherman for striped bass, when they show up and feed hard I go after them, and if they raid the white bass haunt I'm fishing I will do my best to get the customers on them. I'll go so far as fishing for them exclusively at certain times as they get on a good bite and are somewhat predictable. Especially that top water action.


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## Jimmy Blue (Nov 20, 2013)

So do the carp spawn year round or is there spawn seasonal?


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

I hadn't even thought about them going thru the gates but that makes sense . Something has happened to them, I had been catching easily 20-25 a trip, most in the 14-15 inch range and did not see a single one last week. Had a handful of the little carp yesterday in the live well and several in the whites throat when they were caught. Strange year on the Lady !!


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## KevBow (Mar 18, 2011)

Well hopefully all those little carp will have a die off from the heat. Alreasy been a crazy year with all the flooding. I'm goin to lake this week if it's not raining. I'll try and catch some of them in cast net and put them on some jugs for catfish and see what happens


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Good luck with them, they are now a good size for live jug bait 

Everyday now we see big blues breaching the surface, two days ago we put it together that they are feeding on the carp


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## KevBow (Mar 18, 2011)

Plan is in order as long as we can get out on the water


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

:walkingsmMake your jug lines short


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## KevBow (Mar 18, 2011)

Yep I was just telling my buddy Jared we gotta redo them and make them short


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## Bankin' On It (Feb 14, 2013)

Nice work SS! I was out there as well on Saturday and boy those waves were nothing to sneeze at. After the 3rd direct hit over the bow I headed in. Never got bit.


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## kellisag (Feb 18, 2010)

Just curious, has anyone sent the carp picture to someone from TPWD for confirmation on what it is? I would be interested in hearing their response.


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

I know I have seen those things somewhere, I just can't for the life of me remember where. I have searched the interwebs and can't find anything that looks quite like it. I do not think is a carp. It is definitely not a grass, Asian or common carp. I have looked at a bunch of pics of all those and none look quite right, either the shape is wrong or color is wrong.

Dang it I hate when I can't recall something that I know I have seen before.


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## cwhitney (Sep 9, 2014)

Could it be a bigmouth buffalo?


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

cwhitney said:


> Could it be a bigmouth buffalo?


It could be, they look close to the same in body shape I wish somebody would ID them for sure. And whatever they are they pulled off an awesome spawn this year, as I have never seen them before, especially in the stomachs of game fish.
Whatever they are the white bass and other game fish are feeding on them all most exclusively.


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## Bankin' On It (Feb 14, 2013)

I sent an e-mail to TPWD with your pic SS and a link to this discussion. I'll keep you posted.


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

cwhitney said:


> Could it be a bigmouth buffalo?


Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!!!!! I knew I had seen these before. I believe you are correct they are big mouth buffalo. I found this picture of a juvenile bigmouth buffalo at a TAMU site that lists fishes of Texas.

http://txmarspecies.tamug.edu/fishdetails.cfm?scinameID=Ictiobus cyprinellus


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

I have caught them in cast nests before below the LL Dam. Once upon a time I fished there every weekend and a lot of week days. I don't remember seeing tons of them like ya'll describe on the Lake.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Yes sir that looks like it alright. 
Has the TPWD verified it BOI?
They pulled off a record spawn this year. I might have seen a few babies before, I don't really remember, but for sure not the masses of them I am seeing now.
They get big, and I wonder what's next on the menu for white bass when they get too big?


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## Bankin' On It (Feb 14, 2013)

shadslinger said:


> Yes sir that looks like it alright.
> Has the TPWD verified it BOI?
> They pulled off a record spawn this year. I might have seen a few babies before, I don't really remember, but for sure not the masses of them I am seeing now.
> They get big, and I wonder what's next on the menu for white bass when they get too big?


Got an out of office reply email. He's on vacation until the 8th.


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

The flooding triggered the major spawn. The following is from a study I found.

"Reproduction
The addition of fresh water triggers spawning, and year class strength is
positively related to rising water levels and flooded terrestrial vegetation
(Canfield 1922; Moen 1954; Johnson 1963; Gassaway 1970; Beckman and Elrod
1971; Elrod and Hassler 1971; Benson 1973; Willis 1978; Willis and Owen 1978;
Benson 1980). Bigmouth buffalo spawn from April to June (Canfield 1922;
Swingle 1957; Johnson 1963; Walburg and Nelson 1966; Benson 1973), when the
water temperature reaches 14.4Â° C (Johnson 1963). Spawning is slow until
water temperatures reach 15.6-16.7Â°C and is heaviest at temperatures of
15.6-18.3Â° C (Canfield 1922; Johnson 1963). This species will spawn at
temperatures up to 26.7Â° C (Swingle 1954). Bigmouth spawn in shallow water​over vegetation and scatter their adhesive eggs randomly (Johnson 1963)"


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## DJ77360 (Jun 10, 2012)

I was told this is a Buffalo that I caught off my bulkhead. It does look very similar to the picture posted by Shadslinger. The dorsal fins look different though.
I could have been told wrong. I don't know.


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

DJ77360 said:


> I was told this is a Buffalo that I caught off my bulkhead. It does look very similar to the picture posted by Shadslinger. The dorsal fins look different though.
> I could have been told wrong. I don't know.


That is a Freshwater Drum, also known as Gasper Goo, Goo, Shoe fish and several other local names depending on where you are at. I find them to be good eating, but some consider them as trash fish.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

SeaOx 230C said:


> The flooding triggered the major spawn. The following is from a study I found.
> 
> "Reproduction
> The addition of fresh water triggers spawning, and year class strength is
> ...


Thanks SeaOx 230c!
I thought it must have been related to the flood waters.


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## SeaOx 230C (Aug 12, 2005)

Think of all that cut bait that will be swimming around out there.


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