When I locate the fish at a certain depth and try to slab I never catch much. What method do y'all use? Do you just continue jigging it up and down? Do you try and get right above them or rip it up through them?

I would bet you are not on top of a school of sandbass. When I'm typically over a school and you drop a slab it's hard not to catch them. Well at least this time of year. Maybe winter is different You should at least get some bites bouncing it on the bottom.

Both. Try one method and if that doesn't work try the other. Sometimes suspended fish don't bite. If they are bunched up at a specific depth they may just be traveling and not feeding. If they have some separation like 15-20 ft they might bite. Until last year I never had any luck with suspended fish. Keep trying and you will figure out what they want.

Ok thanks! We were out last week and chased/stayed on top of sandies schooling for most of the morning with no luck slabbing. We got all we wanted on the surface and just below but nothing slabbing. We tried throwing in the middle, to the sides, and straight down with not much luck.

We will be out Tuesday or Wednesday and give it another shot

What size slabs do you use?

Bigger fish are always below the schoolers. They feed on falling shad that have been wounded and these are easy meals for them. Slow your presentation down and don't lift your slab as high off the bottom like you would normally do.

Get an old rod and splash the water while slabbing usually will get their attention?! This usually works for me.. if your not getn bit move on

Used to, and still have that problem occasionally. With the sonar I am running now, I know they are there, hell, I can see them watching and following my slab up and down but sometimes they just have lockjaw.

From a reputable guide on here...learned to find a shallower flat nearby that has fish, these fish are often on the hunt for food and much easier to catch. Seemed to work much better earlier in the year when water was cooler. Now, if I haven't hooked up a few times in 10 min.....it's off to the next spot. Have had fish with lockjaw on 5 spots....6th, can't keep them off the hook. Funny animals.

time of the year has a lot to do with it too

When the fish are relating to the bottom one of my favorite methods is to work the slab like a TX rig. There are two ways to do it.

1. Just pull the rod tip all the way up behind your head slowly and let your slab drop back down to the bottom. You reel in slowly when the slab is dropping back down.
2. Burn it off the bottom horizontally (like 8 very fast reels) and then hit the bail (baitcast reel) to let your slab flutter straight down (thumb the line in case you get a bite). The difference here is that your reeling in the line when your moving the bait as opposed to method #1 where your reeling in the slack line on the fall. This works really well for hybrids/striper. Ive found that they like the horizontal presentation more than an up/down style presentation. Try this method with big flutter spoons and under spins as well.

Hope this helps. This place is for learning and sharing our experiences. If you ever need help with Lewisville give me a call.

Changing the shape and color of your slab plus adding fly two feet above will entice even the most finicky fish. By letting your slab rest on the bottom, shake or move up and down while dragging the bottom will get u bit. U will ketch a lot of doubles.

I have found color is key with lock jaw fish. I have fished white slab and slayed them while my buddy used yellow and not one hit. We have even used purple, chrome and have seen a difference. Another slabbing trick of course is to thump and I really do use music to accomplish that. Michael Jackson seems to work best but be careful if you use his music it makes them fight harder and spin and moon walk. You can actually set your trolling motor to slightly flip, flip flip in the water to trigger bites as well. I don't know if anyone tracks the thermocline but I have had success fishing the thermocline. If the fish are suspended above or below it, still try to mark and jig your slab in the thermocline. I have found they will chase and actively feed in the water temperature change. Don't tell anyone about this though since this is an old guide tip.

Very true today. Silver was the color till the sun came out. Then white or chartreuse, after it came out.

Thanks for the help!

If you have not had a lot of success slabbing then sometimes it's a matter of learning what a bite feels like.
Because they bite differently day to day, month to month, season to season, and sometimes hour by hour.
I find that the hardest fish to catch for those with not a lot of success slabbing under their belt are the fish that; bump the slab up in the water, fish that just barely tick the slab, and those that only hit when the the slab is barely lifted from the bottom.
I watch the rod tip and line of customers who are just learning to jig, or those who have not had a lot of luck doing it.
Then I coach them to hit when the line suddenly goes slack, or I see that little tick in the line that means a white bass just hit it.
I tell them to hit anything that feels different, a slight "tick" that they feel, a little more pressure/weight on the line, a little less pressure/weight, slack in the line when the slab should be dropping, etc...

Here is a group of folks and their catch(100 white bass and two hybrids) who went with me on 7-31, John, Suzanne, Victoria, and Abigail.
They hired me to help teach them some spots and methods for slabbing white bass.
They are good at trolling and catch plenty of fish that way, but they wanted to up their game with some slabbing.
The first stop we made the fish were small, but very aggressive and they caught enough to get a good range of experience with the feel of how they bite.
When we found the pay dirt they could knock the daylights out of them no matter how they hit.
The white bass on Lake Livingston typically bite like hard heads in the surf from mid April to about the middle of June.
Then the big schools break up into smaller ones that tend to rove a lot. And they start to hit the slab with a lighter touch and require more sensitivity to feel the bite.
Often the first or middle of June is when the thermocline sets in. And the fish suspend at 15' anywhere they find shad in open water, or move to shallow water above the thermocline near the bank.
The Dennis Christain in-line spinner method works really well during this time of the season. You can also catch them on slabs when you can find structure above the thermocline.
Holding a slab dead stick style where you see them suspended at the thermocline in open water on the sonar screen and hitting them when they barely touch the slab is very tricky, but after some practice is effective.
Going out with a guide in your area this time of year will give you some advanced slabbing skills, as they are tircky right now when they are not schooling on top.
Sometimes the this time of year the fish feed on tiny newly hatched shad, and smaller slabs work best, 3/4 oz to 1/2 oz slabs are what I use, and I like DuckTracker slabs in The Reaper style. You can find them on Facebook.