Forgive me ahead of time for asking this but I'm new to the freshwater thing. I'm just curious as to what the signs may be for this. Trees budding is one I've heard of. What water temp? Anyway, just figured I would ask.

Trees budding, flowers blooming, i think around 60 degree water temps... good water flow is a huge help...

If all else fails, wet a hook. I they are realy goin, you dont even need bait! =)

I'm keeping my eye on the red bud tree in my back yard. Once those lavender blooms start to show I know the white bass spawn should be in full swim. No blooms showing yet and with the current drop in temperature it may be a couple more weeks. Last year I caught a few (Trinity/Riverside) beginning in mid January but I didn't start catching 25 fish limits till mid February. I was able to catch limits up till Mid March.

It's starting now. Get out and find ya some. Low water all over the state is going to make this a poor year I'm afraid.

Do the 60 plus MAGNUM sandies that a buddy of mine caught yesterday in less than 2 hours count?

He was deep up a creek, throwing a rapala from the bank, in no more than 5-7 ft of water! That may not constitute a run,but by jingo that is one fine fishing day!! And a pretty good indicatioon that things may be about to shift into overdrive for the sandies!

GO FIND YOUR OWN! HE DID!!

Rudy

The scientific answer is photoperiod length, water flow, and water temp. The "run" in a lot of places in Texas actually starts in October. Sandbass follow the shad migration into the upper lake areas in the fall and some continue migrating up. The "spawn" takes place when water temps get to around 60 degrees and stay in that range for a couple of weeks - some years that is as early as March. Most people "waiting" for a good report actually miss out on some fine fishing in November/December/Jan periods far up the creeks and rivers. When the water is in the fourties the fish are there a lot of times, just not real active - for some reason, probably because the water is the warmest, late afternoon bite in cold weather is usually best. You may go exploring the same stretch of river or creek and bam-o you kill em one day and go back the next and it will seem they have left - usually not so they are just not feeding.

There are all kinds of theorys out there that males go first, followed by females, but I think that in the milder winters that is a lot of hooey, I have been catching big sandies with eggs 15 miles up river from the lake I fish all winter long, in water less than 5' deep. I even believe that in the bigger drainages there is a resident population that never migrates back to the lakes. Native sandbass ( never was a Texas native sandbass till they were introduced) are river evolved fish, they return to the big lakes because that is where the highest forage concentration is in warm weather. No lakes then they remain in the rivers.

They swim dont they?

Hey thughes55 know what you meant when you said (never was a Texas native sand bass till they were introduced)but According to the TPWD the whites in Texas are native to the Red river drainage (which would include Caddo ,no damn at one time). Chris

You are correct - Garza Little Elm (now Lake Lewisville) was stocked years ago with fish from Caddo -they have spread throughout the state since. In their East Texas native range before their spread statewide, Big Cypress (before Lake O Pines) Little Cypress and the creeks in the Red Drainage to the Mississippi. The fish now in the Sabine were also Caddo Fish. There were none in Texas till the big log jam which helped formed Caddo was dynamited at the turn of the century - at least none were ever reported before then.

A little more "history" Caddo was created around 1800's by a big log jam in the Cypress Drainage- at about the same time around 1811 the New Madrid Fault let go deepening the depression of the main lake and felling so many trees that the Red River became choked and stopped up by logs for 150 miles from Nachitoches Louisiana to Fulton Arkansas. The Red actually began spilling into the Cypress basin due to that log jam.(which is when White Bass came to Texas) Captain Henry Shreve began clearin the log jam on the Red in 1833 and it was finally removed by the Federal Government in the 1870's. Steamboat traffic went as far up as Jefferson Texas on Big Cypress. The actual earthen dam on Caddo was completed after the turn of the century.

So White bass have been in Texas long enough to be Natives.

Lots of interesting fishing history out there.

Few people on the river east of Chandler, some are catching fish others are just fishing. Mostly small males but some females in deeper holes.