Where’s the Silvers?

I have been out 3 times recently and not seeing the schools of surface feeding silver’s I’m accustomed to seeing in the fall. I like tageting the big ones now and then. What are other seeing?

I have been seeing the shad shooting out of the water everywhere.. when the shad are present on te surface anyways. There has been lots of deeper suspended shad lately with lots of decent marks down there. I would suspect thats the answer to your silver issue. I’ll let you know if they start grabbing the shad(on my hook) off the bottom

Mike – Last night the river got calm as glass and you could see surface activity on a lot of the shad pods. I’m thinking that the white bass are chasing a lot of those shad. During the day I would recommend following the gulls – they will trigger you to surface shad and the white bass should be nearby. I would try trolling through those areas – I bet there are suspended white bass all around those shad pods.

Very sub par white bass fishing year versus what I’m used to. Actually it’s been slowly getting worse. That bite used to be so consistant that you could get them all the time in the same place day after day? It’s actually one of my favorite kinds of fishing. Maybe they are on a cycle.

Sounds logical Turk. I have always noticed the fluctuations over the years but never such a dramatic change like this year. I love casting to them in the fall with a light outfit. WHAM. They hit like a train.

Would the low water and seemingly over abundance of shad have something to do with it too? I’ve never targetted white bass, but the ones I have caught have got my attention. They have a lot of fight in those little bodies. I don’t know a fish that would be as fun to catch on light gear. I should give it a shot soon before it gets too cold. Maybe I’ll just cast a inline spinner in a school and see what happens.

There may be some kind of cycle to the White Bass. My concern is that they may be getting over harvested especially in the spring during their spawn. Last spring prior to Memorial Day I would see a number of boats some with 5 to 6 people in them and they would just be hammering the White Bass. In May the Silvers are spawning and can be easily caught. With a liberal limit of 25 White Bass on the St Croix and 4 or 5 people to a boat that is about 125 fish in an afternoon of fishing. You can put a pretty good dent in the fish population especially during the spawn at that rate. I would see the same boats out there day after day and they were always catching silvers. One day at the Hudson Swing Bridge in early May, I watched one boat fill up a 5 gallon bucket with fish. It is perfectly legal but at the time I thought about how long that fishery could sustain that kind of harvest. We may be starting to see some of the results.

Interesting stuff. I dont know anyone that keeps them but can imagine who does….

I keep them! But I also keep channel cats and mudcats!
PLus I once had a sheephead filet of fish sandwich, just ask Billy Mitchell, after I finished the fillet of sheep off ( crunchy deep fried, with toasted bun, melted cheese, shredded lettuce, and thin slice of tomato with tartar sauce) I called him to rave about it, he wasn’t impressed! ha! Ok there goes the little creditability I had but tough cookies, it was good!

Keep Catchin’
Turk

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I keep them! But I also keep channel cats and mudcats!
PLus I once had a sheephead filet of fish sandwich, just ask Billy Mitchell, after I finished the fillet of sheep off ( crunchy deep fried, with toasted bun, melted cheese, shredded lettuce, and thin slice of tomato with tartar sauce) I called him to rave about it, he wasn’t impressed! ha! Ok there goes the little creditability I had but tough cookies, it was good!

Keep Catchin’
Turk

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I’ll agree with you kept some sheepies and had more compliments on how good the fish was. My dad and I just chuckled if they only knew. Silvers are good also.

Never tried a sheepie, but I like the silvers.

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Never tried a sheepie, but I like the silvers.

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I too like Sheepshead! Here is my favorite way to prepare this tasty delight…First step is to fillet the fish and remove their skin, then carefully remove the lateral line. Next, in a sizzling hot pan, sauté them in white wine (be generous here) for about 3 minutes per side or until flakey. I then gently remove them from the frying pan, toss them in the trash and drink the stock after chilling to room temperature! Best enjoyed with a little Lutefisk (very little). Delicious, absolutely delicious! Recipe works well with Silvers also! Anybody else have a recipe?

I like to keep a meal of the silver bass once in a while too. That’s the fish I learned how to filet on- years back; they are both fun to catch & good eating.

I have definitely noticed the lack of schooling action too! I hope it is a cycle issue & not over harvesting. Is they a way we can petition the DNR to lower the daily limit?

Neighbor brought over some smoked silvers a few weeks ago. I was hesitant on tring one, but when I did, wow they were good.