WBFisher, my experiance in the river is its hard to use a fishfinder to find the WB. I find loads of fish down there but to say they are WB is another thing. Many many times stopped on the mother load of WB and nada. Best to just troll to find em. Troll for a while. Run up and troll again. Watch the banks for shad etc.
The river is so deep its amazing to me. I am sure they dredged it at some time.

 

Odd I always found the white bass easy to see in the river up there on sonar alone. Most of my guiding up there was using a 5" monochrome "Cuda" unit. What I look for is abasically a single consistent line at a certain depth. Suckers line up, all of them, at the same depth and travel up the river. sometimes down as well after waves of fish have spawned. When they are thick the line becomes more of a band. Mark their depth as accurate as possible and then troll a crank bait with a square bill and a little spot of orange on it's belly that runs that depth, or just above. Once you have found them you can get over them in slack current areas and deadstick a DuckTracker slab for maximum damage.
I do enjoy trolling crankbaits in the river when it's going on good. It's a really pleasant way to fish and enjoy the beauty of the river and wildlife up there.
One thing I found was that when they start traveling at all depths is to troll a one ounce chrome rattle trap about fifteen feet behind the boat in the propwash.
The biggest meanest white bass will come up and smash that with a crazy hit!
The propwash stirs up shad and makes them easy targets.
Early in the run is when is I would find them travel deep in a single line. Later they just go anywhere in the water column.

 

......... It's a really pleasant way to fish and enjoy the beauty of the river and wildlife up there.
.........

As much as I enjoy the spawn, the above surely enters into it.

 

I’ve been wanting to go up above 19 to fish the river just because I’ve never fished it. I have hammered em casting a trap in the Creeks. Not sure why the return on your depthfinder would be different in the river than the lake when looking for fish?? Trolling just doesn’t look like much fun to me, never tried it but I know it works.

 

The difference isn't that the depth finder is different, but rather the person using the depth finder!! Enterpreting depth finders is not a great strength of mine.

 

I have been painting an orange spot on the bottom of my crank baits for several years now. I just use fingernail polish. Trolling in the river can be fun and see some nice scenery.

 

COOL!
Whsalum - Just remember, no dock at hwy 19. Really sucks!

 

Never tried fishing for whites during the spawn. Sure sounds like fun. I have drove by ramp during spawn during work and people was parked out on highway.


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Where was the old lock and dam with the trolley. I fished it years ago and travel to Trinity on 19 all the time and could swear it was on that road?

 

Turn off of I 10 at Centerville to get to lock and dam, heck of a long ways, just to west of Crockett.
Trolling at the river I have gone right by big buck deer just standing on the side of the river. I have even turn around and gone by again before they run off. I have seen whole herds of deer swim the river ahead of me a couple of times lead by big bucks. If you are one of the first to travel up there before the big push of boats you can see beaver, lots of eagles, sometimes river otters, always a bunch of nutria rats too lol.
The first time I went was with Lone Eagle(Roger Dousay) after Fishinganimal told me the bite was on.
It was very early, like November or December. We launched at Bethy Creek and as soon as we hit the river put out our lines. We didn't troll ten feet before we both had on huge white bass. We weighed them on Roger's scale and they were 2.3 and 2.2 pounds, we thought wow those will be the fish of the day. We were wrong we both caught limits in an hour and they were pretty much 2 pounds or better each.
That year the river was low and green all during the spawn, the creeks never had flow and they stayed in the river until late April.
I remember the first day of the spawn that year that the morning and evening trips didn't catch limits for the for first time since December, I told my deck hand that we would go back to the lake the next day. Other guides stayed on the south end all the time and did very well deadsticking white bass with thumpers over the river channel in the lake and out on flats when it warmed some. The Trinity River watershed must have had a bumper crop of adult white bass that year and conditions and high population together may have kept them from spawning as much as usual. Many white bass never left the lake that year.
We did go back to the lake and caught limits on the south end with customers.
A guy who had gone out with me once up river and then followed me everyday after like he a had a rope tied to the The Mighty Red-Fin called while we were on the south end.
I had not been taking his calls, but thought this would be good.
He asked, "Loy! Where are the fish?" I asked where he was, well he was on the river at riverside and been trolling all day with not a bite!
He asked what he should do, I told him to turn downriver and drive 40 miles and he should be on fish.
It was like the white bass waited and waited for the creeks to flow and the creeks never did, so they hung around way past usual time still full of eggs.
Most of the fish we caught well into that summer were absorbing the eggs back into themselves for food as the majority of the females had never deposited their eggs.
And when it was time they must have swum day and night to get back home asap.

 

Always enjoy seeing all the wildlife. Eagles, otters, black squirrels, osprey, and etc. We have caught some good whites in november up there when the water is right. Don't think you can get in and out of Bethy creek now. Silted in like several other creeks. The whites do get big in the spawn. I know several have seen this picture but thought I would post it again to show people how big the whites can get.

 

I think there was a run up the river this past November. I know I followed fish from midlake up past 190 just before Thanksgiving. They were full of eggs and big ones. Just curious have y’all tried to cast to these trolling fish once you locate em? My experience on the spawning fish has always been casting either a small chrome/blue trap or a crawfish colored crank bait. Once you find them in the creeks it’s usually fast and furious. I don’t keep any during the spawn but they are a blast to catch. Karl I stopped and looked at the ramp at 19 the other day, lots of rocks ☹

 

I also enjoy casting to the whites but when the run is on it can be a problem casting to them. Dang potlicking trollers or just plain potlickers. Yes I do troll but don't cause problems for people casting. There are some places that are good for casting. One place used to be excellent got washed away a year or so back. There is a place down stream from the hwy 19 bridge that can still be good for casting also. If you want to cast fish early or fish during the week.

 

The trolling method I am talking about is in the river proper which is 25' deep five feet from the bank and and 35 very quick after that. I forget just how deep the river is in general now, it's been a long time since I fished there. So I am going be conservative and say 35' in general and deeper in the holes. The white bass traveling the river make a band suspended at 5', or 12' or 18; they are at the depth you find them, period.
Select a crank bait that travels that depth or a little above, and count out the line by 1, one thousand, 2 etc..so you can calibrate where the hits come from.
Using the crank bait designed to travel 8' will still take some calibrating to account for speed and line drag.
You can tell when you get the right depth/line count they will hit it like it owes them money.
Early mornings they mostly suspend and travel with some coming up to chase shad. As the day goes by the fish usually get more active and chase shad up to the top and onto sand bars/ridges. That's when a rod trolling in the propwash with a 1 oz chrome trap can be some real fun, it's best to have an old stout ugly stick and some good braid on that one!
So casting to those suspended fish in river current can be done, it takes a lot out of you to concentrate on presenting a cast lure to those suspended fish.
The trolling is nothing like the trolling HellPet rigs people use in the lake, they are no fun at all however effective they are.
When the fish get up at 5' I always troll some sort of rattle trap, different colors can make a difference and that orange spot on the belly is a must.

 

I know you guys love the Trinity River, and if I ever figure it out, I might learn to love it like you guys do. But my all-time favorite river is the Sabine. Been spending a week on it for the last 16 years. I'll be spending the week of Feb 14 through 18 this year. Below is a photo of me and one of my old Navy buddies. He'll be coming down from Pennsylvania again this year.

And the white bass are world class. For consistently large whites, this river has no equal. It's only downside, (or maybe an upside) is it is so far away.

 

Do you fish out of River Ridge? I’ve been wanting to make that trip for awhile but I’m afraid my boat would be a little to big?

 

The Sabine river white bass are really about the furthest west of the original range of white bass, they were spread from there to rest of the state and more.
Maybe because they are the OG white bass they still get the biggest.
It's always been too far for me to travel for a white bass, but wow they are some honkers.
Thanks for the reports Texcajun. Looking forward to this years.

 

Growing up I always wished for a little rain every spring as the additional water does benefit their annual trek up the river and contributes to a good spawn and good nutrient rich environment after they hatch. It must be a powerful urge for them to herd and run upstream every year. I bet that the rains excite them as they know this expands their destination horizons into new fertile grounds. The window of time to get the job done is small as is the space. The more water the better.

We chased white bass growing up in central Texas on Lake Belton. Plus, we made spring trips to Lemons Camp and Gorman Falls to wade the river for whites. Amazed me as a kid to witness their annual migration and their predictability to be in the exact same zones of the lake at the same time every year.

In the 70’s, a small in-line spinner, crinkle cut blade, white body with black dots, with white feather treble hook, made by Abu Garcia…we called them Shysters….they were super hot in the rivers. Clear Heddon torpedos or clear Skipjacks for tops, blue or white bucktail jigs, and 1oz Bomber slab spoons (white, black dot) were also very popular. Some people were trolling white Hellbenders with small teaser jigs trailing behind which to me was a lot of work. Dad wasn’t in to trolling. We preferred to cast at them or jig them up.

I remember our first hybrid. Drag peeling angry and thick as a brick. WTH!!! Freaking white bass on steroids. IMO, white bass, pound for pound, are extremely hard fighters and now they’ve gone and created hybrid beasts to fight and catch. YAY!!!

We had one man on the lake that pursued whites all year while we shifted to other species (blacks and crappies) throughout the year. I was always amazed that he was on them all the time and knew their patterns. Back in the 70’s, there weren’t many people that focused exclusively on white bass the entire year.

Lowrance flasher units were primitive but got the job done. I loved charting structure and exploring the underwater terrain, finding ledges and drop offs and creek beds. I still love doing this and my Garmin stays on the entire day.

This thread has me wanting to find a creek or river. I think about this migration each year but I never make the time to go.

Thanks for sharing your stories.

 

Although I didn't expect to catch in a creek yesterday, I tried nonetheless. The river is low and green; there is no cleaner water spreading out from a creek mouth into the river. There also is no flow in the creek I was in yesterday. I keep trying because I love fishing the spawn, but it sure hasn't happened for me yet this year. In the river itself, a huge mass of something on sonar seemed to fill the 15 to 20 foot depth yesterday, in water that was 25 to 30 feet deep. Water was around 52°.

 

I am going to be down for the count for the spawn as I have surgery on my left elbow on 2-15. I hope to sneak in one trip with a friend before then and hopefully hit the river or a creek that is right for some fun catching and releasing big sow white bass.
As for freshwater fish I keep my crappie fresh in the brush piles and only take a couple at a time to eat, it sure makes a difference, even one day in eating them fresh.
But even those donkey 15" ones never fight anything like a white bass just over half that size.

 

I am going to be down for the count for the spawn as I have surgery on my left elbow on 2-15. I hope to sneak in one trip with a friend before then and hopefully hit the river or a creek that is right for some fun catching and releasing big sow white bass.

As for freshwater fish I keep my crappie fresh in the brush piles and only take a couple at a time to eat, it sure makes a difference, even one day in eating them fresh.
But even those donkey 15" ones never fight anything like a white bass just over half that size.

Sure is nice to see someone give the white bass their due when it comes to fighting. I like to eat the crappie but they aren’t known for their fighting abilities.

 

I hope you have a speedy recovery. I will be at it next week for the whites. If I get on some good action before your surgery I will holler at you. After this recent rain and cold weather the whites should start running good.

 

White bass are the perfect species for fun fishing. They fight hard for their size. They can be very sporty, hitting lures etc. They reproduce like crazy, grow quickly but don't live over about 4 years. What it amounts to is that legal fishing won't hurt them. You should not feel guilty for keeping your limit to eat, whereas you might for speckled trout or large mouth black bass.

 

I usually troll at 3 mph. Then adjust if needed. I use the outboard but have used the trolling motor just for the heck of it a couple times. 3 mph is spring, summer, and fall.

 

I trolled slower than Matt.
Seems like 2.2 mph when it's cold water with pauses and a steady 2.4mph when the action gets real good are the trolling speeds.
When they stay in the river and the river is low and green they are trying to wait out the creeks rising to go spawn. They have to have enough current to flow over the deposited eggs for about 48 hours so the eggs can hatch and not have silt settle on them and smother the eggs.. The sows are super sensitive to flow right now, they seem to try and wait out the creeks to get a rise. If the creeks do not they will spawn in the river on sand bars and wind swept point and bends. And will sometimes hang around a long time waiting for flow.
I have fished the spawn under those conditions in the river and found that the first waves are hard to get to bite, and travel deep, 20' sometimes. Then gradually move up the water column and bite better as they do. When you can see them at 8' and 6' it's usually on with a rattle trap or a good square bill, with a little orange on it's belly.
The year the Mighty Red-Fin was one year old that would be 2000( it had a new control box installed) the white bass spawned on the state park jetty and underwater berm and the southwest corner of Pine Island. Both wind swept points on the lake. I got into them at both places and had incredible action just casting a slab and retrieving it. The action was a fish every cast for a week or more before it cooled. I took the boat out of the state park on a shake down cruise on March 15th and before I could clear the no wake buoy a huge school blew up on the berm and three of us limited out.
The next day the same thing happened, but we caught and released until tired. Then out of boredom we took a ride to pine island to find the same action on he wind swept corner on the southwest side. These fish were bigger there and we fished them about a week on spring break and saw two other boats.
I have never seen them do that again since, but check pretty often ;>) every year I believe.