A beautiful white fish, somewhat having silvery glaze to it and an arched back with pale green dashes all over the body is what a typical white bass looks like. When it comes to bass, there are a few different but really exciting ones. There is your largemouth and smallmouth bass, though not from the same family, then the striped bass, yellow bass, and the beautiful white bass with a perfect dorsal and caudal fin. Like any other bass fish, this one is also a predatory fish, popular among gamefish anglers. It’s no more than 12-15 inches in length and 3 pounds in weight, in most cases, thus a tiny but feisty sportfish.
However, compared to other members of the temperate bass family, they are not very vicious or shrewd. So, catching them becomes a bit easier hence much fun, especially for the beginners. The only thing you need to do is somehow hook one to your rod, and it’s going nowhere.
However, that doesn’t mean you need no tricks or techniques to apply to catch this silvery water predator. They are, after all, game fishes that know how to tackle the situation putting up a decent fight. Therefore, we present you with some beneficial white bass fishing tips in this very discussion.
9 White Bass Fishing Tips
Tips #1 – It’s Not the Striped Bass
Many make this common mistake of not recognizing the white bass. Some consider it a striped bass, especially the hybrid striped bass. However, it’s not, and the difference between the two fishes is quite glaring. It’s so glaring and easy to identify that some anglers will be surprised to hear that many make mistakes in recognizing the white bass and striped bass. The thin, more elongated fish is the striped bass, and the more round-shaped, fat fish with the lofty-back is our white bass.
You can recognize and differentiate both with their stripes and mouth as well. Striped bass, as the name infers, will have vivid ones compared to one or two faint lines on white bass. And about the tooth patches, striped bass has two and white bass just one. So, if the shape of the fish is not telling you much, try the stripes or tooth patches.
Tips #2 -Let’s Cover Gear Quickly
You do not need a heavy setup because the fish you are focusing on is small. So, make sure the whole tackle is lightweight but extremely sensitive and quick.
- You will need a simple fishing rod, about 6-7 feet. It better be a medium-fast action rod. Consider a rod with great sensitivity; otherwise, you will miss the long nibbling the white bass enjoys before taking the large bite. Heavy rods will not budge even if the white bass leaves taking the bait.
- We like using a braided fishing line, about a 6–8-pound test line. The reason, it’s the lightest and thinnest and also best for ultralight fishing. You can use more on your fishing reel without making it heavy. Having as much line as possible during the day of white bass fishing is crucial because if you somehow manage to crack the schooling or shoal, it’s a long-term task.
- When it comes to fishing reel, try the spinning reel. Keep it ultra-light with a smooth drag. A 10 sized spinning reel will compliment a 6-7 feet fishing rod the best.
- There is no specific fishing hook that we will suggest, and you will consider it mandatory. Just keep the fish hook small because it all depends on the size of the fish.
Tips #3 – The Technique That Always Works
You can catch white bass fish applying simple techniques and with a simple rod set up. Keep in mind that when you are fishing for white bass, you can catch multiple. One after another, in a brief period. What the trick is to mark the spot where you have got your first white bass. Suppose there was one, then there are many, even 10-15. If you couldn’t get your second white bass in that particular time, make sure you visit the same spot once again, but a little later.
Now in a perfect white bass location, there will be several such hotspots. Mark all of those and take a good round of those repeatedly. And it’s very much likely that visiting the same spots, again and again, will gain you enough white bass to boast about for days.
Tips #4 – Best Bait for White Bass Fishing
Live shad is white bass’s favorite. If there is a schooling of shad, you can be pretty sure there will white bass. A shoal perhaps right below or around. It literally hunts its prey with vigor. Other than live shad, white bass also takes minnow pretty easily. Lastly, wriggly worms are bound to attract this predator with their small form and squirming activity.
Nevertheless, we are talking about catching multiple white basses at one go due to their schooling nature, so live baits are not very quick and practical to use. However, as they are small baitfish and worms, pretty much readily available, you can try.
Tips #5 – Best Time to Catch the Silver Bass
It applies to the whole bass kind. These fishes do not enjoy bright light. So, the best time to catch some white bass is to either target the school in the early morning or late in the evening in low current. In both cases, the sun is not in its full glory, giving the white bass some relief to hunt for their prey or simply wander around just because of the low light conditions. Cloudy, rainy climate causing muddy conditions in the water are also great for white bass fishing.
Tips #6 – Spring Is the Best
Spring is their spawning season, and this is when you will get the greatest number of white bass in whatever freshwater body of water you are targeting. Like all the spawning fishes, white bass also mates and spawns in shallow creeks, crevices, streams, and inlets. So, if you have targeted the hotspot somehow, you might get an entire shoal in one specific spot. We are not at all implying that you cannot pursue white bass during the summer or fall season; you can, of course.
If the weather is favorable, you are at the right location, and the temperature is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, white bass will be more than available to pursue. However, from March to May, this is when multiple white bass angling is possible. They are either spawning or finished spawning and again hunting around for their prey. So, take that chance if you are explicitly trying to angle white bass. Otherwise, you have the whole year for it, and in between could end up catching some other interesting gamefish as well as tasty calico and yellowtail as proxies.
Tips #7 – It Test Your Patience
Considering it’s a fish not very tough to angle, white bass can test your patience. It will not take your bait immediately. No, not because it’s super shrewd and is investigating the atmosphere and its forage but because it enjoys relishing the food that has been offered to eat. It will take a few small bites, almost like it’s nibbling the bait and tasting and reviewing the forage.
And once it is sure that the food is tasty, finally it decides to bite. The good part is that once it bites the bait, it’s hooked, and the struggle will not be as much as the other members of the same family.
Tips #8 – Aggressive for Food
This particular fish is aggressive for their food and, as we mentioned, enjoy its food. It is the most aggressive about its food when it spawns. Also, it’s always in the hunt for its forage. So, if you somehow manage to throw your cast in between a shoal that is aggressively preying for the roaming bait fishes, be sure that the rather easily spooked specimen will attack and bite your lure to concentrate on its aim, ending up trapped.
Tips #9 – A Small Shad Crankbait
The white bass’s love for the shad bait is real. Hence, when you search for the best lure to offer to this predator, it has to be an artificial lure that looks like a shad. Our favorite, therefore, has to be the shad crankbait, of course pretty small in size. The smaller, the better. If you are using comparatively big-sized baits to catch small white bass, that’s not going to work. Instead, try the 1/8-ounce shad crankbait, the ones that resemble the shad the most, in shape, color, structure, every aspect.
Try either the wide-eyed ones, lipless ones, or the blue ones, if possible, the blue ones, lipless with wide eyes. With that, the white bass is bound to take the bite and get hooked. Such lures work in shallow water, around the structures and covers as well. What you have to do is cast in, throw the shad crankbait in the water and continue moving the rod in a way that the tips move up and down, almost in a hopping motion slowly and scanty.
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This movement will create enough signs for the white bass to get rattled but not spook it. Thus, it will attack the lure. Not just that, such artificial lures go pretty deep in the water pretty quickly, especially the lipless crankbaits, and work in the shallow water like no other.
There you have all the nine tips and important information regarding those tips we had to share with you. May your white bass fishing experience become even more effortless than how it actually is. The fun of catching several fishes at one go with little to absolutely no effort using the right cards has to be a fun experience.
