# white bass 101 on Lake Livingston



## shadslinger

I have been getting many requests from 2coolers wanting some help with white bass fishing. So many I wrote this to cut down on typing time. I posted it as a reply recently but the thread has dropped down low so I thought I would bump it up for those who are interested. I wrote some similar info last year summer, but can't find that thread.
It is just MHBO, and I hope it helps those who are just learning the white bass ropes on the board. It is mainly Livingston specific 



I have fished for white bass on the South end of Livingston for 10 years now. I have about 80 payoff white bass waypoints on my GPS. Some are places that everyone knows about, the Hump, the Lump, the Southwest end of the Pine Island, and the State Park jetty, others I keep to myself. The sweet spots I have were developed by always marking waypoints when I catch white bass or stripers, over time they cluster around certain areas with structure that hold fish most of the time. I also try to make myself try spots that I have never fished before to keep developing new spots. I fish mostly from Pine Island South on the lake because it is such a big lake that I was overwhelmed at first from the all of the reports from the 190 roadbed all the way to the dam. So I made a decision to concentrate on the South end and learn it well.
There is a screen on my GPS unit that will show all of the waypoints I have and the clustering around certain places is very evident. For some of those I edit the points that cluster tight around one point, and use it as starting place. When I go there I cruise around looking for the school that hangs around that spot. Knowing what white bass look like on my screen is a big help. I stare at the sonar screen all most every moment I’m fishing and since I always use my unit set on manual and 80% sensitivity and set to show pixels ( I never use fish symbols) I have learned to “read” it well. It gives me allot of information.
One of the best things to do to help to learn good spots is to take time to look at the screen when you are directly over and catching white bass. That way you develop an idea of what they look like on your screen, and how they appear when they are active and feeding hard.
It is especially helpful to know the area that you fish well enough to know that when a signal that appears as a rock/stump in a place where you know there are none, then it might be a school of white bass. 
It is very helpful to know what shad look like on your screen and what schools of shad look like. Big “balls” of shad are great indicators of white bass or stripers nearby, because shad shape themselves into a ball when they are being chased by predator fish. If you see a ball of shad and some elliptical signals around the ball and above and below it, drop a bait, you’re in bass.
There are a couple of common denominators for white bass spots on the lake, one is a drop that goes from 9’ to 20’ quickly usually close to the bank, another is a rise that tops at 25’ with 40’+ water around it in open water.
Lake Livingston has a tremendous population of both shad and white bass. The trick to catching whites is to find where they ambush shad, like the places I mentioned above. These spots are great because the whites will hang around them and wait for a school of shad to swim over the rise or off the drop off and then they can ambush them.
I only troll when I can’t find a school on my usual spots and I troll at least 2 rods with jet divers and trailing pet spoons or crappie jigs. If I have them I troll one with a 10’ diver and another with a 20’ diver.
One of the best things to have in your boat is a couple of marker buoys that you can toss over when you find a school.
There are allot of finer points to white bass fishing, but these are pretty good white bass 101 tools.
SS


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## Fishin' Soldier

Awesome post SS. I hope to get up shortly and catch me a few. Been working alot lately and hate seeing all of these reports of the easy pickins..


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## randyrandy

Well done SS.


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## NitroNX898

Thanks SS, you are a helpful man


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## FISHNNUTT

Marker bouys. Good idea!!:slimer:
:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:



Good post SS


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## tngbmt

wow, almost like structure fishing for the elusive snapper. i'm dying to take a boat to the lake. maybe i can get my deep water fix in shore


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## wareagle1979

As usual, great post.


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## SaltH2oAssassin

*Bravo,bravo......*

:cheers:Great post as usual!:cheers:


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## Corey270

Very helpful info...great post


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## shadslinger

I put this info into play this morning as my friend from Kansas had not had enough yet. He brought his wife and son and we went right to where we slayed them yesterday, and,....blank screen on the sonar, no fish.
I "said they are still around we just need to look around a little." I let another boat that was patrolling around the same area leave before I got serious about it and soon found another monster school in 25'.

The boat had not even swung out on the anchor line before whites and stripers were hitting the deck. We stayed until we had a 4 person limit, my friend wanted to take some fish back home and I thought better him than me when it comes to filleting a 100 white bass!
Rachael asked me not to take a pic of her with the little yellow bass, so I did anyway, lol. 
Poor Josh, he fished on the other side of the boat from Laureen, Rachael, and me, I swear he had to catch 10 stripers to one white bass on his side, must be that pirate thing he has going on.
We had to catch about 3 stripers that were 15" to every white bass. By the time we were done my hands were ripped up, as I forgot to bring some rags to handle those thrashing baby stripers, fun to catch, heck to unhook. 
We had a great time and it was a beautiful morning, a good day to be on the lake.
SS


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## FISHNNUTT

Way to stay on them whites SS


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## fishy

nice post SS and nice fish. Hope to catch some Saturday night. Were gonna bowfish Conroe on Friday night and the either night fish or bow fish livingston depending on the wind.


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## Fishin'Bug

Great Post SS!!! Thanks for spreading the years of knowledge around a bit!


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## dbullard

great post Loy!!


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## Gofish2day

Man that is some great fishing!


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## HAIRCUTTER

Great post.Thanks for sharing.
R.E.B.


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## poppadawg

Question for you SS. How important is time of day for whites? Do they activily feed all day? Or is is primarily a dusk/dawn thing?


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## shadslinger

Good question pappadog, that factor appears to be constantly changing for white bass. In some spots on the lake it seems that they like the morning & evening bite, on other parts it will change day to day.
One of the spots I have been fishing recently has varied almost every day. Today dbullard, Nick and Gator Gar and I went at 8:00 because it seems that they have been biting a little later each morning, we found what i was looking for on the sonar and tried over several schools but would only get a bite now and then. We went across the lake a spot where I had been doing well on Friday and there were very few fish on the screen. So we went back to our starting place and started trolling as the schools would not stay in one place long. Trolling worked great. We would hook doubles just about every pass and tried to jig the schools we located with no luck. We talked about it and thought that they were just not hungry yet. About 10:00 we hit a big school trolling and gave jigging try, sure enough we were swinging and stripes over the side jigging pretty well, but they were suspended at 15' in 25' and not on bottom like they have been.
For the last 3 weeks time of day has varied allot, for the most part they have been biting a little later each day. In the past when whites were on the hump in good #s you could catch them all day, with the bite actually slowing just before dark. I think sometime after about 10:00 PM they would go back to feeding.


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## shadslinger

Just looked back on this board and read Rather-b-fishing's report from Friday. In it he stated that he went out at 5:00 in the evening and had no luck to speak of. He is a good white bass fisher and he tried several of his spots with not much luck. So even though they have been biting better late in the morning than they have been real early, they still appear to like morning to midday right now.
SS


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## bueyescowboy

I have tried about 3 times to add to this post and the computer god's are against me. Here's try 4

I was going to add to the 101 part.....if you don't catch the white bass in one location....move to another. And in the late summer I find it helpful to carry binoculars(mainly to watch for bikini's) to watch for the birds working.

and I have been catching my limit in the afternoon...3 o'clock till dusk. Good bites...slab never hit bottom.


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## tunahunter

good reading for a rookie white basser!


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