How to Catch the Big White Bass
Catching Big White Bass in a Tailrace
 Editor’s Note: To become a great fisherman, regardless of the type of fish you want to catch, you need to learn who has the best tips for catching the species you want to catch, and then fish with them and learn from them. Over the years, I’ve fished with some of the greatest fishermen in the nation. Some of these anglers, like Tom and Don Mann, have passed on to the other side of the pond. But the wisdom and the tactics I’ve learned from them work today as when they first taught them to me. The river may change its course and the fishermen may fade away, but the fish, especially the white bass, still take the same kinds of lures they always have.
Once you learn the pecking order of the white bass in a school, then you can adjust your fishing technique to catch the biggest white bass in any school you fish. When fishing for white bass in a tailrace, use a double-spoon, bottom-bumping tactic. On the end of 20-pound-test line, tiea three-way swivel. To the second eye of that swivel, attach a 2-foot piece of 10-pound-test monofilament leader. Then at the end of this leader, tie on either a silver spoon or a Rooster Tail in white, silver or other shad colors. To the third eye of the swivel,attach a 20-inch piece of 20-pound-test monofilament leader. On the other end of the 20-pound-test leader, tie a second three-way swivel.To the second eye of the bottom swivel, tie a 10-inch piece of 10-pound-test monofilament leader. Then attach a second Rooster Tail or a silver spoon to the other end of the leader.
From the third eye of the bottom three-way swivel, tie an 8- to 10-inch piece of 20-pound-test monofilament leader. Attach a piece of lead heavy enough to get your line to the bottom to the end of the leader. The amount of current coming out of the power plant at the base of the dam will dictate the size of the lead you need to get your bait to the bottom.
Motor your boat to the slack-water part of the tailrace. Once you get your lead down to the bottom, engage your reel. Keep your line tight, and troll across the current or up the current. Because the white bass will feed in the current, you’ll find the largest white bass holding closest to the bottom with the younger white bass feeding on the shad near the surface. Often the bigger white bass will hold down-current of the younger white bass, since the shad that the smaller white bass may cripple may not fall directly under the younger fish because of the current.
If you cast a lure out to the swift water, the current will wash your lure away from the slack water where the fish hold below the current. Only by using a heavy lead that will carry your lure through the current and down to the bottom where the big fish concentrate, can you take the biggest white bass in the tailrace.
Tomorrow: Trolling the Tailrace and Jigging White Bass |
