Well, you can either take some advice from a veteran with 42 years of experience, or go waste your time figuring it out by making your own mistakes. I'm simply trying to help people out is all. I was asked about fishing with lights at night and I gave them an answer. Catching spawning whites up in the river is a totally different game than fishing for them in the lake. I guess there will always be doughters.

True...

Everyone has their own way to learn "how to" do things. I believe one should do "what ever floats their boat". It's your time and your fishing trip. Go for it. Good luck.

My $0.02
I've learned to listen to others with way more experience than me. I use the information that sounds practical, and disregard the info that doesn't. In most cases, this information saves time and effort. Advice from folks like my neighbor & Fishytx, comes from a lot of years figuring this white bass spawn out. 80+ years between them. That experience doesn't mean they know everything, but I'd bet they know a lot. I've been beating the bank and chasing spawning whites every year for 30+ years. I don't know much, but when folks like them say they are catching or not catching, and they give advice "how and why"; you bet your boots I'm listening.


Fishytx, my neighbor "Royce" says hello. He was at the steps last week when you were there. He said he stopped and talked with you. He said he loaned you a split shot that day.

Keep those reports coming.

Tight lines all!

thanks fishytx. i will save that setup for after the run and try it for crappie. also just heard what happen last night at the steps with the game warden. you are a good guy.

If Royce tells you to fish with one leg in the air, you better try it. That is one guy that knows what he's talking about. I have had some great conversations with him. He's a live bait angler for the most and he fills his stringer in a short period of time.
He has a few more years of experience than I do. So yes, you are right. between him and I, I bet there is close to if not more than 90 years of experience. I met him like four years a go on the Yegua creek. He gave me something a few years back that he makes to put on a stringer that allows you get them off in about 30 seconds. Awesome guy with a lot of talent about white bass fishing and wildlife. I bet he and I have stood shoulder to shoulder catching whites at Reymers together in the years past. After talking with him, he and I have been fishing the same water holes for years and years. He also reminds me a lot of myself. He and I both have tried just about anything and everything we can think of to increase our catch rate over the years. When we started this sport, there was no limit. So when I went home, I had over a 100 whites to filet.

thanks fishytx. Been fishing for white's close to 45 years now. My dad would take me to they Yegua and we would just fish with minnows and tear them up. Been fishing the Gabriel sense they opened the lake and even when it was just a river before the lake. I figure the day I quite learning, that's the day they bury me. As long as a fish can swim, it's going to be a challenge. Thanks for the info guys.

There is always room for improvement. This year has been a learning experience for me for sure. Weird fish behavior, not just the white bass either, all species.

Here's what makes or breaks a person on fishing. Watch and learn what the fish are doing at all times. I have never kept a journal, but some people do and it helps in the years to come. The key to a successful fishing trip is allowing the fish to tell you what they want. Sounds crazy? Not to a true angler. You have to read the conditions in which you are fishing. From hour to hour these conditions will change. There is lighting, gravitation sun and moon pull, current, water cooler, water temp and many more things that must be taken into consideration while fishing with artificial baits. I don't believe in luck when it comes to fishing. Although luck will come knocking on your door from time to time and when it does, you take full advantage of it. Watch your surroundings, take note of what works and what doesn't. When I speak of a journal, people are writing down barometric pressure, air and water temperature, water clarity, moon phase, I mean it goes on and on folks. When I'm fishing, I picture what my bait is doing at all times. Just the slightest little change in presentation can make a difference if a fish will strike your bait or not. They may follow it for several feet, but you have to figure out what they want and how they want it in order to get them to strike at it. This is what makes fishing so much fun to me, it's the challenge I am up against every time I go.

I'm like you, I have to get there, see the water then make some choices. I will also look for shad jumping, any type of water movement. This time of year, I will even wear my camos and watch how I throw my shadow on the water. Like you said earlier, those whites are spooky. Plus they get a lot of pressure on them this time of year. We hammered them the other day and then this guy came up in his kayak. He must have been learning how to set up when rowing or something. No problem, they are there to fish also, and they got to learn too. But, it turned the fish off until he left. Like you said, these fish are different this year.

So you understand the inner clock or whatever it is that tells you if you are going to have a successful trip or not. I am not sure what to call this, but I can walk outside for about ten minutes and determine if I'm going to be on a good bite or not. Most of my fishing trips with the boat are on a whelm. After being outside for a little while,I will walk back into my home and tell my wife that the fish are calling my name, hook up the boat and go fishing. Any time I get this strong vibe, my catch rate is very high. When I am having some doubt, but go anyways because I'm bored, the bite has always been somewhat poor. I have no clue how this works, and I do not question it any more, I just know when the fish are biting and I go for it. I know people are going to read this and think it's a bunch of trash talk. I would too, it sounds weird. But I get these vibes, entowishions, gut feeling or whatever they are called and they are strong. When they're very strong, I react on it ASAP. It works for me and that's all that matters. I no longer fight it, I just go with the flow.

How many of you think this is a bunch of trash talk or just weird? I find it weird..... I know there are others who can feel these vibes as I do. They just don't want people to think they're strange or a weirdo. Call it what you like, but it's reel in my life. I wish I could explain how this works or feels, but I can't. I would call it human instinct. Something we all have built inside of us, but have lost the connection with mother nature due to the technical world in which we live in today. Men have these hunting and fishing instincts built into them from birth, just like the females have that baby nurturing instinct built into them. There you have it, I just answered this mystery. Men are born with these instincts. Now you have to figure out how to acknowledge it when it occurs.

Maybe you are just part fish . I can believe it in a way that you can feel pressure changes and what not that may affect fish as well.



I believe more times than not it has more to do with confidence than anything. Confidence is an interesting factor that does affect fishing. When I am very confident, I can almost make the fish bite and the focus is that much greater. The opposite is true when I am lacking confidence it is sometimes harder to get bit. I believe that may be occurring when you mention the above scenarios.

My great grandpa used to take me fishing for Yellow Perch when I was a kid. The fish would come up shallow to spawn in the spring and you could catch them by the bucket load in little farm irrigation ditches.

I would spend the weekend on his farm, and pester him to take me fishing. Somehow he could tell just by the direction of the wind if the fish would be biting or not. If the wind was out of the West or South we would go catch a bunch of fish. If it was out of the East or North he wouldn�t want to go, and if we did go the bite would be very slow.

I wouldn�t call that intuition, but something more like memory recall from years of fishing. Even if you�re not using a fishing log �Fishytx�, you�re still mentally processing all sorts of information when you�re on the water fishing (temperature, wind direction & speed, etc). Eventually, after years of fishing, you start to put together patterns, both good and bad. So yes, I believe it when you say you have an intuition.

I know one thing that helps me with river/creek fishing is I�m able to remember spots that I�ve caught fish in the past. Somehow I�m able to make a mental note of location and water level/conditions, so that when I return to a body of water 5 or even 10 years later I know which spots have been productive in the past.

Some people have a instinct in them to survive in nature. I figure that's what you have. Myself, I'm half Cherokee. My grandpa and dad thought me how to read the signs of nature. How to look at the water, the sky and listen to the wind. When I'm there, I become part of nature and respect the creation and the creator. Myself, I know when to go, when to stay, by natural instinct and tradition my family past down to me. When I see the water, I know what type of bait to use or color to use. Good luck with your fishing, enjoy reading your post.

i was always to told to pay attention to the animals. If the birds are signing and the other animals are active and playing. when the animals take cover it is bad to fish.

One thing remains absolutely true...you can't catch them if you don't go!

I will have to say this, I have spent many a days in the woods and on the water during my time. I love the outdoors. Maybe you are right, I have learned to read into things from past experiences. Confidence is a huge factor in whatever you do in life. And I have plenty of this while I'm fishing. Focus is also key factor.

Took my boat out Monday and got my rod bent good. I'm having doubts about doing any more white bass fishing. If we don't get some rain, then I will continue to go catch three and four pound black bass. You got love a good pulling fish. Listen to weird story. Hooked into a grass eating carp that struck my top water bait. Sucked it down and the fight was on. This guy weighed 20 plus pounds. It had a $15 topwater bait that wasn't willing to give to him, so it took me over ten minutes to tire this fish out and get my bait back. I did take a few pics, but i have no clue how to post them on here any more. It was about three to four feet long. One heck of a fighter.