# My biggest White Bass to date.



## neverlimit (Mar 26, 2007)

This is a picture of my biggest White Bass I've caught to date. Almost 17 inches long. How about ya'll?


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## sea ray (Mar 15, 2006)

good looking fish, where did this happen?
thanks for the pic


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

That is a good one IMO. I don't think I have ever caught an 18" white, a bunch in the 17" to 17.5" range, but no 18".


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I have measured a few that were over 17" by a hair, but nothing bigger. I caught one at Sam Rayburn that weighed 3.25 lbs, but didn't measure it.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Nice fish...and I appreciate including the ruler with the picture. Really helps.

Its interesting to me that we don't seem to catch whites much over 17 inches..at least in the Trinity watershed. The world record is well over 6 pounds. Seems like we should occasionally see 19 and 20 inch whites?

Any theories on why that is?


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

Meadowlark said:


> Nice fish...and I appreciate including the ruler with the picture. Really helps.
> 
> Its interesting to me that we don't seem to catch whites much over 17 inches..at least in the Trinity watershed. The world record is well over 6 pounds. Seems like we should occasionally see 19 and 20 inch whites?
> 
> Any theories on why that is?


I have wondered the same thing.

The Trinity River record was caught at Lock & Dam by Elpescador24's brother. It was 18", was caught 2/24/95, and weighed 3.72 lbs.

The Sabine River record was 18.88", was caught 1/29/98, and weighed 3.9 lbs.

This is the right time of year to catch a heavy one, while they are full of eggs.


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## elpescador24 (Aug 12, 2005)

how is it going whitebassfisher.it was actually me who caught that whitebass at the lockndam.phill was with me...it lost a little weight betweeen the time i weghed it in at the seabrook parks & wildlife office,a day later.unofficial we weigh it at the lock,terry burns scale 4.1 lbs..i ve caught a few close to that,but not better.


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

*Congrats Elpescador24*

Elpescador24 : Okay, then a sincere congrats to you! Phil did _not_ claim he caught it, LOL! I was under the impression that you & Phil had another brother that caught the record, my bad. Phil & I discussed fishing for whites fairly often when we worked at the same plant. I am doing about the same, still after those whites, and doing my best to replace your name in the Trinity River water body record for white bass! LOL



elpescador24 said:


> how is it going whitebassfisher.it was actually me who caught that whitebass at the lockndam.phill was with me...it lost a little weight betweeen the time i weghed it in at the seabrook parks & wildlife office,a day later.unofficial we weigh it at the lock,terry burns scale 4.1 lbs..i ve caught a few close to that,but not better.


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## neverlimit (Mar 26, 2007)

Sea Ray, 
You asked, "Where did this happen?"

It was caught in Spring Creek, Saturday morning at Jesse Jones (JJ) Park.
I saw a lot of big sows being caught with very few males being taken.


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## BigDawg123 (Dec 27, 2007)

Where is this JJ park?


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## neverlimit (Mar 26, 2007)

JJ is north of F.M. 1960 E. (Humble area) on and at the end of Kenswick Dr. Where Spring Creek is about to join the San Jacinto River.


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## neverlimit (Mar 26, 2007)

Well, I thought we'd see some pictures...


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## BigDawg123 (Dec 27, 2007)

Thanks for the info.


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## OL' LUNGBUSTER (Mar 3, 2008)

I caught a 15 inch fish further down from JJ park last year. I put in Bowhntr's kayak by bridge on Treaschwig and took kiddos out. Caught lots of whites and crappie down there last year. Just got off long hunting season(duck/deer) and now ready to pickup fishing pole again.


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## capn (Aug 11, 2005)

I would guess that the watershed records have been broken many times, but the fish were consumed. I've personally seen honest 4 pounders in the Trinity system, per fish scales, but only a small handful. Can remember a trip where my father and I stumbled onto a school of jumbos in a creek several years back, and we caught 15 over 3 pounds but none topped 4. Slow fishing, but every fish was huge. They were gone the next day. Dad and uncle have seen a couple well over 4 in the all the years they've fished it, but they ended up in the wheelbarrow with the rest and walked back to the cleaning table. Seems like the ones we normally get into nowadays aren't nearly as big.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

capn said:


> I would guess that the watershed records have been broken many times, but the fish were consumed.


I can't help but wonder if a slot limit would result in a lot more larger whites? That would probably be met with huge outcry, however....but if we could catch 4's and 5's, it would be well worth it to me.


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## Ross (May 21, 2004)

This is my biggest to date. Should have measured it more closely and looked at the water body record before letting someone clean it. I was concentrating too hard on the Striper that were blowing up all around us!


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Soon as I catch another big one, I'll post a pic. Now is a good time to catch a really big sow. Has anyone been up White Rock and caught white bass?


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## johnmyjohn (Aug 6, 2006)

About 1975-76 the L.D. bait camp manager's son, Edward, started talking to me before I got my gear together and started fishing. I fished with him before a couple of times and I seen him just about every time I went there and he loved to fish and showed to know fish pretty well. He pulled me aside to an ice machine, the kind that holds ice bags for sale, and wanted to show me his fish. He said it was the biggest sand bass he ever caught and ever seen. He said it was probably a record, and was sure enough that he called a warden to verify. I also remember he said it went over 5 lbs. on a hand spring type scale and it looked like what I was catching for weekends to where I didn't question what it was or anything out the ordinary. I don't know if they had hybrids back then but I knew what a striper was and looked like but when I came back up to the bait camp I asked where he was and the fish, the lady there said they both were gone. I believe that year the Trinity came out of it's banks and flooded everything all the way to the base of the first hill heading into Crockett, the camp was tore up and I wasn't able to follow up on the fish story. When the camp opened up some other family was running it and the story ends there for me. I wonder once in while about that guy and his fish. I hope my story didn't bore everybody.


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

Wow Johnny, you've been going to the L & D a good while. I had the white bass addiction by that time, but wasn't going to the l & d yet. In fact, I needed my present job to be able to afford to have reliable enough equipment to run that wild river. 

Meadowlark, I doubt a slot limit would help, but I admit I tend to trust the TP&W dept research. For many years the minimum size was 12" instead of the statewide 10" for certain watersheds. The wildlife folks decided it made no difference other than confusing people. Personally there is so so much more meat on a 12" than a 10" that I can't see keeping a 10" unless it was gill hooked. I think since a white bass grows rapidly and reproduces like crazy but has a relatively short life span that the great controls used on black bass or specks or reds don't really apply to white bass. If we use common sense and follow the law, I doubt we will hurt the white bass population. I have heard horror stories of gill netters in the creeks and rivers, but the p & w try their best to keep those scoundrels on the run. It is just a theory, but possibly the introduction of stripers & hybrids might very slightly reduce the size of the biggest whites due to competition for shad. If that is true however, I don't mind that my biggest white is 17 & 1/2 considering the fun I have had with stripers. Stripers are put in huge deep lakes that have a large river running into it while hybrids are placed in smaller lakes that haves creeks running into them.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I think their very short life span makes it hard for them to reach bigger sizes, most live 3 to 4 years.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Whitebassfisher said:


> Meadowlark, I doubt a slot limit would help, but I admit I tend to trust the TP&W dept research. ..... It is just a theory, but possibly the introduction of stripers & hybrids might very slightly reduce the size of the biggest whites due to competition for shad. If that is true however, I don't mind that my biggest white is 17 & 1/2 considering the fun I have had with stripers. Stripers are put in huge deep lakes that have a large river running into it while hybrids are placed in smaller lakes that haves creeks running into them.


Well, it isn't likely to happen regardless of the science.

Definitely agree that even if stripers hurt the overall size of whites, which I seriously doubt, especially in Livingston, I rather have the stripers than not.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

shadslinger said:


> I think their very short life span makes it hard for them to reach bigger sizes, most live 3 to 4 years.


So, a lot (?) of those big females are going to die anyway?

I've studied hybrids in a captive situation (ponds) and they double in size every year...1 pound first year, 2 pounds second year, 4 pounds third year, ...and then some (many) die thereafter....not all of them but many. Of course a pond isn't anything like a lake...but what I'm trying to say in this rambling is that I think you are right about their life span in Livingston.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

There are a couple of small lakes that I know of, one is Aquilla near Waco, that have large schools of white bass despite not having much of a creek and no river in which to make a spawning run. They will spawn on windy points of the lake. 

Which some white bass will do in any lake especially if there is a shortage of rainfall that year. I have caught actively spawning whites in March on the south West corner of Pine Island on Livingston where it slopes very shallow for a long way. The fish would milt and squirt eggs when you caught them, also by the jetty at the state park.

White bass to me are the fish that bring it all to the sport of fishing in freshwater, they are willing to hit most of the time when you find them, and they are not depleted by over fishing because they spawn so well, and they give a good fight to the angler.

I eat fish about 4 times a week, grilled, fried, and sometimes baked. White bass are good prepared any way that you like, and have a near neutral flavor that can be enhanced by the spices that you like best.
So I never have any qualm with people keeping their legal limit of white bass, it just does not hurt their population, and as you mentioned they will die shortly anyway.

I fish for them quite a bit and keep them if I know I will feel like cleaning them after the fishing is over. Which has become less often as I get,....more mature.
SS


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

SS,

I got into some really good whites about three weeks ago in the 190 road bed area on the far west side...they were big sows and full of eggs. Those fish I believe, were/are going to spawn around there somewhere....just a week later we got into fish at Riverside.

I think you are absolutely right about them spawning in the lake ....and absolutely right about *"the fish that brings it all to the sport of fishing in freshwater"*


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I read your post when you caught the big ones on the road bed and was happy for you. Having read your posts along the way I thought you were due to get some big ones. 
Waves of them that don't stay in the lake will head up river or the major creeks on into the 1st of March. By the end of March they will be done most years spawning.
When they come back to the main lake it seems to me they get it done much faster than heading upstream.
By the 1st week of April they usually start to show up around 190, and then a little later at the Lump. By the end of May I can usually find them on South lake structure like the Hump. 
By late summer they get very boat shy, as the water usually is very clear and they have been pressured all summer. It is time to catfish then.


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## Sean Hoffmann (May 24, 2004)

Back in '93 or '94 from the Frio River above Choke Canyon, fishing from the bank. She was 18.25 inches in length. Caught on a crappie jig or Tiny Trap, can't remember.


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## neverlimit (Mar 26, 2007)

Some more pics. I don't know about yall, but are the white's bigger this year or am I finally, more better?


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## KillaHookset (Jan 6, 2005)

My biggest one was just shy of 18" caught it today! at JJ Park. For reference that is the tailgate of my Chevy 2500


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## Ranger R (Jun 24, 2004)

Those are some nice whites...However, here in Central Texas where we fish the Highland Lake, there was a 3.51lb white caught by a friend on Lake Austin.

Check out this link..
http://www.austinbassfishing.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1234583195

I too have been catching some nice whites on Lake Travis. However, the lake is very low, and not certain if I will get into them like the past.


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## neverlimit (Mar 26, 2007)

KillHookset, Nice 18 inch fish. Did you weigh em? Thanks for the pics.

Ranger R, I haven't weighed any of them so I don't know what they (16 -17 inch) weighed. I was guessing maybe two pounds, but now you have me wondering.


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## KillaHookset (Jan 6, 2005)

Didnt weigh it, I need to start carrying a good scale though...but then i will probably start catching the smaller ones and never need it! LOL


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## Rip Some Lip (Oct 30, 2005)

16.50"
Spring Creek...


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

The one on top here is one almost 18", just a16"th shy. It was one of three that day that were very close to 18", that is about as big as I ever caught and measured.
There is web site that converts length to weight for most game species, it is pretty close with most fish, I'll look for it.


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## neverlimit (Mar 26, 2007)

Thanks for posting the website. I haven't caught one over 17 inches yet, but by the chart, when I do I'm in for a pleasant surprise. Thanks for the info&#8230;it makes me want to fish!


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Nowis the time to catch one, go get it.
SS


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## Caveman (Jul 21, 2004)

*Caught six*

I caught 6 in Lucey's bayou last Saturday while crappie fishing (no crappie) that went from 16-18 inches. For some reason their seem to be a bunch of large whites this year. I have fished Lake Houston for the last 30 year and these are the biggest I have caught. They were all full of eggs and shaped like footballs!!!


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## texcajun (Feb 22, 2009)

*Largest White*

Don't know if these are the largest I've caught but these 2 were 3.2lbs apiece. That's me on the right and my old navy buddy Don on the right. they were between 17 and 18 inches. Both were caught on the Sabine this past week.


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## tomcatt (Aug 10, 2004)

*Huh??*

You can't both be on the right. Nice fish


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## marty x valley boy (Apr 4, 2005)

maybe its the fish on left doing the report. Cuz then the two guys are 0n the right. nice fish


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