Sabine River Bass Fishing Reports

[MotherNature]

Your fishing report goes here....

[docwaldo]

well, i have been called lots of things in my life, but an authority is not one of htem!!  but i seem to have some "insider information" that the whitey's are running on the sabine.  the trick is for the water to settle before this weekend when i go try to fill up my boat.  i have "heard" several reports of huge catches of both numbers and size but i have not been able to pin anyone down to give me locations.  but i have several locations that i have routinely caught them in the past.  i am just afraid that i am about two weeks early.  i will give a full and accurate (yeah--right!!) report of my trip including size, numbers and baits (yeah--right again!!)  upon my return.  anyone else been white bassin'??  

glad to be able to call myself an angler again.  

drop it deep and yank it hard.  .  .

doc

[loggerhead]

 Doc, are you trying to tell us that you bend the truth, I can't, NO! I want beleive that.

Good to hear from you again

Loggerhead

[Chris]

Doc, Some of the male whites started running back in December . The river was pretty low the last couple of months so they were in desperate search of current (males swim up the river first and the huge females show up later)  so they keep swimming farther north . There is one part of the river where they couldnt go any further north and you could catch them by the hundreds .You would have to launch at the highway 43 bridge and run slowly North(maybe a half mile) until you get to a run of rocks (coal) that spans the width of the river (it was like a little waterfall).I say WAS because the river has come up now and I havent been there since (two weeks ago). They may still be there but I dont know. They were loving a roadrunner with chartreuse body with a pink head .Im sure they have shown up in Logansport in some of the likely areas. I may go check them Thursday but with all this  rain I dont know yet .Cant wait to take my two little boys down there when the run really starts.

[bassadict69]

I may have to try for some of the white action this year. I have read all the posts on here about it the last couple of years. I keep saying I am gonna go give it a shot. I wouldn't mind catching a few fish for a change!!

[Chris]

Bassaddict, You wont be disappointed ....I just started going regularly in the last couple of years and look forward to it every year.I have spoiled one of my kids on the whites so bad that when we fish for regular bass he wonders why we arent catching a fish on every cast .. Its loads of fun and will tell you where to go catch crawfish if you decide to use them or if you dont already have a spot .They seem to be the most productive bait around this time of year in Logansport. Good Luck

[fishrman]

Chris, I need to put my daughter and her friends in the middle of some good fishing action. Are crawfish the best bait? What size and where would I get them? What artificial's would you recommend using? As you can tell I know nothing about whites, the only ones I have ever caught have been by accident.

[Chris]

JR, I prefer very small crawfish. When I say small I mean 3/4ths of an inch long. When my brother in law and I started going a couple of years ago we split the crawfish up. He wanted the bigger ones (1 inch long and up). I took the smaller crawfish and I out fished him at least 2 to 1 . So we learned that the smaller ones are the way to go. As far as artificial :Roadrunners  in white body /pink head and chartreuse body and pink head (1/8 th oz to a 1/4 oz) Shad raps will work as well. If you get to a spot and you are using crawfish and you find that they are very concentrated then dont be shy about throwing artificials.As far as hooks I use crappie hooks or the mustad size 2 all around. Im probably going Friday to take my father in law .I will go to several spots that I normally hit out of Logansport and if the whites are in there I will let you know where to go .I do owe you one and would be more than happy to return the favor ..... I will also be more than glad to get you set up with crawfish.

[Chris]

I did a search online tonight since we were discussing white bass and found this story.Low and behold the area (the run of coal)I described to doc made the paper in Houston. Unfreakin believeable!!!! Im pasting this from the Houston Chronicle .

By SHANNON TOMPKINS 2004 Houston Chronicle
Experience told Jane Gallenbach where she and a fishing partner might find a pile of white bass last Sunday afternoon.

But to get to the spot, she had to drive 25 miles, trailering her boat, from her home at River Ridge on the Sabine River near Tenaha to an isolated launch on another section of the river.

From there she maneuvered the specially-designed aluminum flatbottom boat powered by a Go-Devil "mud" motor over and around jumbles of fallen trees and logs and other debris clogging the river channel.

"It was tough going," the Sabine River native and fishing guide said "But it was worth the effort."

The Sabine was low and the water was green. A seam of coal formed a natural dam preventing the boat going further upstream. But the natural shoal also served as a barrier to any fish trying to move upstream.

"The white bass were packed in there," Gallenbach said. "We caught two limits (25 fish per person) in an hour and 20 minutes. The biggest fish was 2 pounds, 4 ounces."

That same weekend, a pair of anglers spent a day in an aluminum jonboat chugging up and down the Trinity River above Lake Livingston, throwing jigs and crankbaits around the mouth of creeks, in deep holes on the outside edges of bends and off the edge of sand bars -- places they had scored whites in previous years.

They fished all day and never got a bite.

Welcome to the winter white bass spawning run in Texas rivers.

Few other freshwater fishing opportunities are as much a feast or famine affair.

Hit the river at the wrong time -- when it's rain-swollen and muddy or before the whites have made a major upstream move -- or fish where the fish aren't, and anglers can spend a long, frustrating and fishless day. If the weather's sour, as it certainly can be this time of year, add cold, wet and miserable to the mix.

But pick the right conditions, find a concentration of spawn-minded white bass massed in a river bend, at the mouth of a creek or jammed below a shoal or other obstacle to upstream movement, and action can be white hot. It's not unusual to catch a fish or at least get a strike every half-dozen or so casts.

Best chances of connecting with a mass of bass are right around the corner, according to fishing guides who pursue the deep-bodied, strong, cooperative whites.

"The whites are fixing to start running up the Frio," said fishing guide Jerry Dunn who is headquartered on Choke Canyon Reservoir. "By the first part of February, they should be in there, thick, and it should last through March."

Dunn made an exploratory white bass run up the Frio above Choke Canyon earlier this week. He found only a scattered fish or two in his traditional white bass hot spots. But that will change within a couple of weeks, he vowed.

White bass leave reservoirs each winter to make their spawning run up rivers and creeks. The fish are "free spawners" and require moving water to procreate.

The white bass collect in large concentrations, the females release their eggs, the males release milt to fertilize them and the viable eggs tumble and travel downstream as they develop.

This behavior can create outstanding fishing opportunities for anglers willing to chase the whites up the rivers.

But in most waterways used by the migrating whites, river conditions dictate where, how and even if anglers connect.

"Water conditions are the key to where the fish will be," said Scottie Davis, who guides anglers after whites on the Trinity River upstream from Lake Livingston.

Catch the Trinity when it's low, green and current is light, and the main channel can produce outstanding white bass fishing during the winter run.

"It can be world-class," Davis said. "But in a normal year, the Trinity itself won't be 'right' -- low and clear -- but maybe 10 or 15 days during the three months white bass are in the river. The rest of the time, it's too high and muddy."

Rain is the bane of white bass anglers. Heavy runoff from winter and early spring rain pour cold, muddy water into the watershed, causing the river level to rise and take the consistency of chocolate milk.

Under those conditions -- a high and muddy main channel -- whites will move into feeder creeks.

"After a big rain or a rise, the creeks clear up first," Gallenbach said. "That's where the white bass will go. One of the best places to look for white bass is where clear water meets muddy water."

Davis agrees. On the Trinity, the creeks are, by far, the most consistent white bass producers.

That's not generally the case on the Frio, Dunn said. The Frio seldom sees the big, muddy rises common to East Texas rivers during the white bass run. And the river channel is where most of the fish congregate.

But the fish aren't everywhere, Dunn notes. They prefer certain areas.

Many anglers troll the main channel of the Frio, picking off a white bass here and there, he said. But for fast action, look elsewhere.

"Trolling is like robbing the teller," Dunn said. "I don't want to get waste time with the small change. I want into the vault. I want to hit the mother lode."

To do that, he concentrates on the edges of sand bars, deep holes in river bends, mouths of creeks and the edges of the river where trollers can't work.

To find the fish, he uses a quarter-ounce or half-ounce Rat-L-Trap in chrome/black.

The 'Trap, a vibrating, lipless crankbait which imitates a shad, is perhaps the best bait anglers can use to locate white bass.

"A chrome/blue or chrome/black Rat-L-Trap is the best lure to use when you're hunting for fish," Davis said.

But when anglers get a hit on the crankbait, indicating they could be on a concentration of whites, most switch to smaller, less expensive lures imitating the small baitfish or crawfish on which white bass primarily feed.

An eighth-ounce lead-head jig tipped with a soft-plastic, curl-tail grub in yellow, white, chartreuse, a Road Runner jig with its grub and small spinner blade or an in-line spinner such as a Rooster Tail are the most commonly used lures for white bass.

The baits are relatively inexpensive (at least when compared to crankbaits such as Rat-L-Traps), and that's an issue when fishing for river-run whites.

Often, the fish hold in tight quarters in water littered with logs, rocks, limbs and other hook-snagging debris. Better -- cheaper -- to sacrifice a dozen $1 jigs to the river gods instead of a dozen $3 crankbaits.

When anglers locate a concentration of hungry river whites, lure choice is not that important.

Being there, is.

While anglers can find spawn-minded white bass in Texas rivers as early as December and as late as April, the peak of the run offers the best shot at having a highly successful trip.

In the Frio, Sabine, Trinity, San Jacinto, Neches, Colorado and other premier winter white bass rivers in the state, that peak is just around the corner.

"I tell people if they want to be sure to hit the best white bass fishing, go anytime from Valentine's Day through the first of March," Gallenbach said of her Sabine River country.

"The third week of February usually is the peak of the run on the Trinity," Davis said.

Things pick up a little earlier farther south on the Frio.

"By the first of February, the run's usually going strong," Dunn said. "It'll usually last at least into March."

Shannon Tompkins covers outdoor recreation for the Chronicle. His column appears Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

[fishrman]

Chris,
Thank you for your expertise and info. I really enjoyed the article as well. Have you ever tried a jigging spoon?

[gunter1309]

Fisherman,
one word of advice from my experience with the whites Mr Thomas and I got on last year, avoid using any bait with a treble hook on it!!  We were catching up to 3lb fish on road runners and we saw some guys using crankbaits, we were catching twice as many fish because they had to spend time and effort getting the crank out of their mouths, carpet, pants, shirts, each other... you get the picture.  the road runners get hung less and when they do you can straighten the hook without breaking off --- much less trouble when you are catching almost every other cast -- it was a blast and I intend on going a few times this year, we got in on the end of the run last year.

good fishing

steve  

[Chris]

JR ,ditto on Steves reply! Around Spring Break time for the kids you should be able to use artificials exclusively. Until then I will take crawfish too.  You can catch a ton of good sized yellow bass on the crawfish as well. They taste like white perch to me. I dont think there is a limit on the yellows.Im going Friay and will report whatever I come up with .

[fishrman]

Thanks for the pointers, the last thing I need is increase my balance at Willis Knighton!

[BIG PAPA]

Hey Chris, where do you find crawfish this time of the year?
Sure would like to fatten my pond fish up with a mess of crawfish.
papa

[Danny]

  I think you can buy live ones from most of the crawfish stands.Not sure on prices. They shouldnt be too high. Also there is a big mudhole just past Parkway Highschool headed south that holds a lot of crawfish every year. I dont know if they are in there yet.
Danny

[Chris]

Papa, You can catch them on 71 south as Danny said or hwy 1 south near Robson (close to hwy 175). If you wait a couple of weeks the good ,decent sized ones will be plentiful .There was a spot my bro-in-law found last year that was unreal . I will give you specific directions to it via message.     ;DChris

[BIG PAPA]

Great guys , thanks a lot

papa

[docwaldo]

well, it was cold and WET.  it rained on me most of the morning until it started snowing and then it snowed flakes the size of golfballs for over two hours.  it was so neat to just be "out in the elements.

the fish di dnot cooperate all that well.  i caught a few catfish and abot 6 whiteys, but over all it was cool (pardon the pun) to be on the water again.  

may do it again tomorrow, will wait and see.

drop it deep and yank it hard.  .  .

doc  

[Chris]

I didnt get to go yesterday but Im going tomorrow morning. Will let everyone know how it went good or bad .

[docwaldo]

chris--where do you launch when you go to the sabine??  i launched at jauquin this morning and never saw another boat.  both launches were empty totally exc ept for mine  did you get any crawfish??  that was the ticket this mornign.

good luck and maybe i will see you there int he morning

doc  

[Chris]

doc, I used to launch out of Juaquin but now I launch out of Garretts Park ,just north of the Juaquin launch . After I launch I usually run about two miles further north to a slight bend in the river that has a decent dropoff .I fish the shallow and deep part of it . I didnt get to go again today  because I woke up with the crud  :-[so Im shooting for Tuesday or Wednesday now.  

[Chris]

Finally went to Logansport today . Got to the launch about 2 pm and talked to some fellas that were leaving  who had a few whites but nothing to brag about ,another guy never got a bite in five hours of fishing. We went to all of our normal holes and finally caught some fish about 4pm . We didnt catch any whites but we caught some cats ,yellow bass and big Buffalo . I was reeling the Buffalo in and noticed my hook was not in his mouth, my weight had tangled with a trotline hook that was already in his mouth . Craziest thing Ive ever seen . I believe the muddy water is the problem right now regarding the whites .Hopefully it will clear a little bit here in the next couple of days. I will let you fellas know if I find anything  

[Chris]

Went to the Sabine again today and I got two words to describe the trip............ITS ON!

[docwaldo]

chris,  hey did you go in the afternoon or the morning??  was there a certain time of the day that they bit better??  i am thinking of trying to go one day this week in the afternoon after work and was wanting some more info.

was it crowded??  did you use spinners or crawfish??  thanks for the info--

doc  

[Chris]

Doc, we started fishing about 11 am and left about 4pm .In this particular spot they seem to well anytime but the afternoon was a little stronger. They were more concentrated in about 13 ft of water but we did catch some shallower down to 4 ft. We were using crawfish but I bought some night crawlers just to see if they would bite them and they did but not as frequently.We invited some guys that werent catching fish over to fish with us and they only had shiners and they started catching them but not as much as we were with the crawfish so make sure you go to your local crawfish hole on the way.