# What is going on with our WB?



## markbrumbaugh (Jul 13, 2010)

It's tax day and there are fewer than typical WB in LL. The ones I caught today were very lethargic, and the females were re absorbing eggs. Did they not spawn this year?


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## 3StoogesFishing (May 4, 2010)

I can not say the same Mark. The fish we caught on Saturday were very alive and they were very hungry. The females we caught did have eggs in them as well so i hope that they did get a chance to drop some of the eggs. I had good numbers on the fish finder and we left them bitting. Was a good trip for us.


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## markbrumbaugh (Jul 13, 2010)

3StoogesFishing said:


> I can not say the same Mark. The fish we caught on Saturday were very alive and they were very hungry. The females we caught did have eggs in them as well so i hope that they did get a chance to drop some of the eggs. I had good numbers on the fish finder and we left them bitting. Was a good trip for us.


It's all the egg laden females that are bothering me.

I was fishing mid lake, and trolling...the only hookups were when I was stopped dead in the water" thinking". I'm guessing the off color water isn't helping them strike hard....and I drug all of them in without a fight, but all the eggs? That's the question.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Plenty of good whites on the south end now and I'm finally finding stripers again. I've also heard that many of the whites still have eggs. I don't keep them myself. 

There are a lot of things we do not know about these fish...but the current evidence may suggest the spawn was not a good one this year. I know for certain that more fish left the lake this time than in years past...and it may be possible that the large concentrations of fish in the spawning areas caused many of them to hold their eggs. 

Biologists have told me that it can happen to certain fish, i.e. when they sense a surplus of spawn they withhold eggs and conversely when they sense a shortage of spawn they produce abnormally more. 

I have directly observed this behavior in Tilapia. Instinctively, they can reproduce at very small sizes and young ages when conditions seem to threaten the population...and conversely in crowed conditions tend to reproduce less. 

Time will tell...but my theory is it is way too soon to be spiking the football over a proclaimed great white bass spawn this season...when in fact it may well be the opposite.


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## brucevannguyen (Oct 21, 2012)

markbrumbaugh said:


> It's all the egg laden females that are bothering me.
> 
> I was fishing mid lake, and trolling...the only hookups were when I was stopped dead in the water" thinking". I'm guessing the off color water isn't helping them strike hard....and I drug all of them in without a fight, but all the eggs? That's the question.


Here's my theory, those fish did'nt find a mate to spawn because there's more female than male at the spawn. They could'nt find a male to rub them and excite them to unload the the eggs so they had to go back to the lake very disappointed and tire. They just travel hundres of miles to spawn and back. So that would explain why they were'nt fighting as hard.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

The last three years the white bass caught from my boat were re absorbing their eggs, virtually all the females held their eggs.
We were cleaning them well into July before they had totally consumed them.
For those years I believe the sheer numbers of them had something to do with them not spawning much.
As during the spawn there would be white bass from the dam to the LnD.
This year they lit out of the main lake to go spawn in bigger numbers, and there was plenty of river flow to spur them on.
White bass will also hold their eggs if the water is too muddy for the eggs to hatch. The eggs need flowing but not silted/ muddy water in order to hatch.
Too much silt will smother the eggs.
The first couple of waves that ran up to spawn may have had good spawning conditions, but the later waves of fish were up there under very muddy conditions and maybe didn't spawn because of that.
IMHO.
I'm betting there were plenty of males around to stimulate the ladies, but conditions especially during the middle and later spawning times were not favorable enough for them to broadcast eggs for the males to fertilize.
I did not make many trips up the creeks or river during the spawn, but on the trips i did make in prime spawning time I went to areas where fish actively spawn and did not observe any doing the shimmy or splashing around like I usually see.
It does not take many white bass spawning to make a good crop of new ones so hopefully those early waves pulled it off and we will see some young ones to replenish the lake.
It seems to me the early waves are the heartiest of the population and swim the longest distance to spawn.
If that's true and the early waves did spawn we should the strongest and healthiest of the bunch for repopulating the lake.
I'm sure envious of those who are getting to fish now. When they first get back the schools are huge and compete hard for food.
I'll be back this weekend to get my licks in!


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## Mattsfishin (Aug 23, 2009)

I noticed on some of the trips to the creeks that several times the males were thick as fleas on a dawgs back. Early to mid november there were females going up river past why 19. I did not notice this year any of them doing the shimmy or splashing in the water as previous years but it looks like a lot of them will be re absorbing eggs like Loy mentioned. I will be back at it in 2 weeks or less.


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## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

I am going to trust Mother Nature on this. At the rate they can possibly reproduce and the conditions we had, I doubt we will have a problem.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I think it takes about a dozen spawning to fill the lake !
White bass are not native to Texas but were stocked in East Texas long ago. 
It didn't take them long to populate the states rivers and lakes.


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## markbrumbaugh (Jul 13, 2010)

shadslinger said:


> I think it takes about a dozen spawning to fill the lake !
> White bass are not native to Texas but were stocked in East Texas long ago.
> It didn't take them long to populate the states rivers and lakes.


Ok...I'm not worried then.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Just did a search and found that they were originally native to the Red River system in Texas and that an adult female will spawn a million or more offspring, so a dozen spawners should reproduce enough for some decent action 
The tpwd site also stated a four year old white bass is rare.


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## Bottomsup (Jul 12, 2006)

Not all of them go up the rivers and creeks to spawn. Some dont get the memo and stay in the lake.


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## live2fish247 (Jul 31, 2007)

*Road bed WB*

Mark I share your pain on the slow fishing. My FIL and I made a trip and fished the road bed last Tuesday and Wednesday. The whites were very slow and I never really found many gathered up in one place. I don't think the water color helped but I expected to find more after the few reports I saw from the south end the weekend before. The ones we did find were scattered. We did catch a few around some of the old bridges but most of them were loners. We had several females full of eggs and I was questioning the spawn as well. I did manage to pick up 2 19" hybrids back to back which I found kind of odd. I've only caught 1 other hybrid in Livingston and that was on the south end. Luckily the jugs fared well on the blue cats and we managed to load up the cooler both days with nice eaters to 5 lbs.


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## whsalum (Mar 4, 2013)

If I had to guess I would think water clarity may be a culprit on the mid lake bite if it is slow.The south end may clear up faster after heavy rains. Were you juggin around the road bed ??


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## markbrumbaugh (Jul 13, 2010)

whsalum said:


> If I had to guess I would think water clarity may be a culprit on the mid lake bite if it is slow.The south end may clear up faster after heavy rains. Were you juggin around the road bed ??


Yes, and it was pretty murky.


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## live2fish247 (Jul 31, 2007)

whsalum said:


> If I had to guess I would think water clarity may be a culprit on the mid lake bite if it is slow.The south end may clear up faster after heavy rains. Were you juggin around the road bed ??


That's what my FIL suggested as well. We were setting the jugs off of a bulkhead down where the roadbed gets close to the bank. Anywhere from 6 to 30' of water all set 6' deep. Set out 10 at first to try it out and had 8 blues after about 30 minutes. Shad and buffalo fillet for bait.


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