I've been catching plenty of white bass lately but am looking to make a small stockpile of bait/lures to take out on my birthday, Saturday. My go-to is a 3" paddle tail swimbait. I'm fishing the Brazos river where the water is very muddy looking so visibility is low.

With the river being muddy, I would fish with a lure that has plenty of vibration. A 1/2 ounce rooster tail or a curly/paddle tail in a dark color is good.

The two lures I love the most for river run whites is a rooster tail/roadrunner (I like bright colors in stained water ie pink, or chartreuse) and the other would be a downsized rattle trap

Thanks for the recommendation Mathis! I'll keep the vibration in mind looking for new lures, the paddle tail I currently use has a lot of vibration to it with the right speed retrieve and I imagine that's what's been getting most of my strikes. Will be adding rooster tails and curly tail grubs to my list of baits to try this weekend.

An inline spinner, rooster tail- Mepps like profile . Color dictated by water color. Muddy, use green or chart , swift water via current may apply cork and jig combo. Always fan cast and pay attention to where you felt a strike or saw your line jump. Have to down size, Crappie jig with three foot tag line and egg sinker attached above , swivel etc. don't b afraid to put small 1/8 ounce unpainted jig head and curly tail on line above swivel, the sliding jig attracts fish.

Slab and Mepps #4 silver

Sassy Shad

This is the best. It is a #4 Mepps Aglia plain silver.

My preferences:

During the Run->
•homemade lures like the mepps #4 (Dennis Christian got me hooked on his method and I started making my own, heavier weighted)
•top water baits similar to the KVD sexy dawgs (I order them on amazon as they are less than $2 each)
•2” super fluke hooked through the face with a #6 circle hook (Carey Thorn’s setup)
•And a Road Runner Marabou in red/chartreuse (Jane’s favorite in the Sabine at River Ridge

After the Run/Summer->
•homemade mepps #4
•holographic slabs from RSR
•top water baits when surfacing

I wasn't expecting this much of a response, thank you to everybody who has replied! I looked around and my local stores don't carry Mepp's #4 but I grabbed a heavy chartreuse rooster tail, a box of 1/8oz unpainted jig heads with curly tail grubs, a few more swimbaits, and some flukes. I've been going every day to fish for white bass and they have been hitting harder daily on my standard swimbait, I'm looking forward to using these new baits tomorrow, I think it'll make for a much better birthday fishing session. Thanks again to everybody, I will try to remember to update y'all after fishing tomorrow, assuming too many beers aren't had at the river first!

Windbreaker, do you sell the in line spinners ??

Just wanted to update and let y'all know that I had luck with a rattle trap and curly tail jigs. The fishing was tough between the extreme winds and showing up right as the bite was tapering off, but I still managed to pull out a half dozen or more white bass. Thanks again for the recommendations, it has been a lot of fun working to catch fish on baits that I'm less comfortable using.

I have thought about it, but never got around to it.

I don’t typically lose that many but I take a lot of friends fishing that are noobs and they like to lose them for me. I have caught so many on one that almost all the white paint was gone. I normally re-tie every 10 fish or when I see my braid starting to fray above the lure.

If you send me an address, I will mail you a couple.

For rivers my fave is the 2” Rapala Minnow, floater or Countdown depending on the depth. 4 or 6 lb mono.
Tie your line with a tight knot directly to the bait. Keep the knot centered or just a bit below center on the eye.
(No swivel or split ring)