Big River - Mississippi White Bass

The Mississippi River has finally gotten down over the past month for some good white bass fishing in some of the oxbows in Mississippi. We used tail spinners and dropped rigs over the top of tail spinners to catch 163 whites and a few largemouth a couple of weeks ago. The fish were all caught off one current swept point. When cleaning fish, we found that most of the fish had 1.5”-2” bream in them instead of shad. Great fun for sure. Caught numerous doubles, some triples, and even one quad on the dropper rigs.

Thanks for sharing. This is the 1st Missippi River report of white bass I have seen. Congrats on a great catch!

Howdy and thanks for sharing.

The beginning of new areas to chunk and reel.

Same...nice report!

Nice catch. Interesting rig you're using. Could you show
how you tie it all up?

Good Luck,
Bozz

This shows the dropper loop knot. Then I just put a light jig head on it.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_KL8ej_8jMs

The Mississippi River and most of its tributaries are absolutely full of white bass. When it is right, it can be the best fishing in the world. Best part is that action was happening mid day in 95 degree weather. I rarely am able to find that kind of action anywhere away from the river this time of the year.

The other way we love to catch them is night time around the green lights. My kids have a lot of fun catching big whites in the spring in one of our local lakes and hybrids in another one. Loads of fun for sure.

As a kid I learned about lead lures by accident fishing the Mississippi along the dikes, when water was flowing over them during the shad spawn, I grabbed a basically unpainted slab from my uncles old tackle box and started casting up river and keeping the rod tip high until the lure made it over the rocks, then I'd drop the tip and the big whites would smash it every time. I limited out several days like that, my uncle and dad never cared for them as they were catfishing.

The last sandy pictured is a monster.

Yes, that last white (sandy) was big. It weighed 3.63, the largest out of about a thousand we have caught the last couple of years. That is my oldest daughter holding it. She has been fishing with me since she was 2. She talked a friend into going one night to fish around the lights. Her friend had never been fishing before. She is still telling people about that night of fishing. I love to catch them, but I really love to take kids and see them light up when the drag starts squealing.

The hybrid in the bottom picture was almost too much for my nephew. We laugh at the face he is making every time we see the picture.

Awesome post. Thanks for sharing.

Awesome!

I would imagine there are some monsters in the mighty Mississippi!

Nice fish.