Good points about the curly tails, I have those and love them, and that you can order single hook Mepps.

I'll transfer some more pics from this morning. I went down, caught about 25, every single one of them was over 14" and I think the largest one from today was around 17".

I bet at least 5 of them weighed over 3 lbs. as they were very gravid females just busting with eggs.

What else? I'll attach a few photos later of the LMBs that have moved into the shallows. I caught 4 really nice sized LMBs on the tiny Mepps.

I think I could have caught even more with a #4 Mepps just because they seemed to be a few yards farther out toward the creek channel. The extra weight would have given me the distance I needed.

So, 25 or so white bass, all large, 4 LMBs. I yelled over to a neighbor and he came over and caught one LMB and one white bass using a gold colored inline spinner of some sort.

Brad

Below, one of the LMBs that came out to play today with the white bass. It jumped around as I shot the photo but the 4 I caught were in the 15" to 18" size range.

The white bass in the photo? I was attempting to get a measurement of her width which appeared to be about 5" from its backbone (not including her dorsal fin) down to her big belly. The tape helps sort of show how fat these whites are.

Brad

Amen! For a moving lure, I've never seen anything better with as wide an appeal to more species of fish. From my dock: panfish, crappie, catfish, white bass and LMBs caught on these silly looking things.

Go figure!

Brad

I just now enjoyed reading this string of posts since I spent the weekend visiting my kids and grandkids in Waco and Georgetown. I love to see people get as excited as I do about fishing. Thanks for your detailed reports. It's very gratifying to me to see others having fun using the tips I share on TFF. Those are some huge white bass. I've never fished Lake Athens. Maybe I could pull my boat over there and do some structure fishing for whites with you this year.

Re the fish in shallow water, I also would be interested in what the water temp is in your cove.

White Aglia

https://www.mepps.com/information/aglia-dressed-aglia/121#B4P%20GW

What a fantastic day fishing! I read all of Dennis�s info also, and stocked up on the Mepps. i have only tried it one time with no luck, but I am gonna keep after it! Very happy for you!!!

Dennis, I look forward to you, others, too, coming over to fish. I've never fished for white bass outside of the shallow water, spawning season type of fishing. Others on the lake chuckle about this hidden secret. Athens is more noted for its LMBs, for sure.

I want to learn to catch them in deeper water, out of the spawning season.

Water temps were 45 to 49 degrees the week of February 14 and I suspect low 50s while I was fishing the last two days. Water is and was stained up here from recent rains, holds heat better, and I believe that northern areas on lakes tend to warm up faster . . . though the reason for this escapes me as I type.

One added comment related to the size of these white bass. I sent some details/photos to Dr. Richard Ott at TPWD who oversees Lake Athens and many others in this region and he sent back this comment:

"Brad, thank you for the report. As you can imagine the white bass population on Lake Athens is not as extensive as a river fishery such as at the Neches but enough fish spawn on windswept points to maintain a fishery. Because intraspecific competition between white bass is so low the few that are present grow very rapidly and get very large. This has been the case at Lake Athens since I began working on the lake in 1982."

Dennis, I think this is the answer to the size I encountered, sort of a "quality over quantity" environment. My cove runs north and south and the wind often funnels down it with some speed, creates some wave action. I fight it in my kayaks/canoe all of the time, this wind. This provides an adequate, though not optimal, alternative to white bass running up into rivers/creeks/tributaries, etc. to spawn. TPWD studies show small populations of white bass on Athens that vary from report to report.

I suppose I ended up, counting those I caught today, with close to 40 white bass and not fishing all that many hours, quite a few LMBs and one big crappie. I believe at least 5 of the white bass were > 3 lbs., the longest was well over 18" though most were in the 15" to 16" range.

Cheers! Brad

The Athens lake record for white bass is 3.01 lb and 18.25 in long. You may have had the new lake record.

Dennis, yes, I have seen all the species records out here. I think I exceeded the length record with several white bass, the weight record with 5 or possibly more.

And, I published some photos on TFF last year of some of the bluegills I have caught, one or two over the official length record though not weighed so uncertain of their exact weights.

Two 13+ pound LMBs were caught in 2014, too.

All of these stats seem to indicate a very healthy fishery, for sure!

Brad

I want to try some Mepps this year. I have some with the standard brown tails that I used in Wisconsin. What style and colors should I buy? Plain or or with tails?

Plain Aglia #2 and #4 silver or white. You will need to add some weight (3/16 oz) up the line 12 to 16 inches to make the #2 cast-able and to get it to sink faster.

Dennis, which do recommend ..... Single hook or treble?

I'll let Dennis answer the question directed to him. He has perfected these techniques, kept good records over decades.

My Mepps were #2s, silver, plain Aglias. This is how I interpreted the available material regarding which Mepps to buy . . . from reading his articles and posts, from his video showing him using his technique out on main lakes.

I mentioned that I thought I might have caught even more with a #3 or #4 and it was in reference to what Dennis has added above, that I could add casting distance for the particular situation I was in. Based on where I was getting bit, I thought that if I could cast even another 10 or so feet, I'd have found more white bass. I'm going to try adding some weight, too.

If you guys haven't read what I believe might be Dennis's original write-up on his technique, the discovery of it, this will be worth a few minutes:

Dennis Christian Mepps article

And, his video:

Dennis Christian White Bass Technique

Brad

Tc24: Definitely a treble hook. I want to maximize my chances of catching a fish when it strikes. If I lose even one of the 3 hooks of a treble, I will replace it with a new lure. I can't imagine fishing a Mepps with a single hook. If you watch a Mepps swim through the water you will see that the hook is rotating making it harder to snag the fish. On a jig the hook is stable and a single hook works just fine.

Thanks Dennis, I like so many on here really appreciate you sharing your knowledge! Thanks to Brad R also for posting this thread & sharing his experience/pics with us! Those are some monster white bass!