Total Lack of White Bass

I know the subject of declining white bass populations on Pool 4 and the St. Croix has been discussed here previously. I’ve fished P2 and P3 a fair amount this year and have only caught about six white bass. I caught a 14 incher last Sunday on Pool 2 and that’s been the first one in over a month. I haven’t seen any schools of them busting bait fish on the surface this year either. I don’t known if all the high water we’ve had over the past few years has hurt their populations or not.

Does anyone know if the DNR surveys on Pool 4 show a declining population of white bass?

I sure miss the white bass. They’re a blast on top water.

I do not target them and have caught 2 total this year (keep in-mind I have probably been out 40-45 times). 10-15 years ago I’d get 5 or 6 an outing by mistake.

In my opinion the white bass population is clearly not what it once was. There are still some around, but something has definitely changed.

buckybadger wrote:

n my opinion the white bass population is clearly not what it once was. There are still some around, but something has definitely changed.

Do people usually keep them? If that’s the case, maybe they have been over harvested?

The shallow seams have minnows continuously being chased to the surface.
I’d like to think a lot of that activity is from white bass.

Im finding most fish that are active are suspended. Haven’t been on the croix for a few weeks. Being stubborn in my approach to catching sheepshead for bait with a splitshot/worm, I’ve been struggling as the locations where they’re actually on the bottom are far and few between. Low flow fish take to the ceiling in many cases.

I’m not fishing wb right now so those are only educated guesses.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
n my opinion the white <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bass population is clearly not what it once was. There are still some around, but something has definitely changed.

Do people usually keep them? If that’s the case, maybe they have been over harvested?

I don’t keep them or target them. A friend offered me some smoked once which was actually quite good. When you do run into them, it can be pretty easy to catch them one after the other though. For the few people I’ve seen harvest them, they are pushing for a limit.

@lcdnrfisheries Let’s see what Nick has to say on the subject.

Now I haven’t been on the water nearly as much as much this year…
But I did run into a nice school last year in the Vermilion. But even then it was only one school busting. Great fun on poppers.

I know Nick did some tagging a few years back. One tagged WB went from the back waters of P3 to near the Apple River in around 4 weeks.

FYI on over harvest, which I don’t believe is the problem…but it’s not helping.

5-6 years ago the WI DNR was called on a group of boats near the Trimbelle River. They were taking large coolers back to their cars/trucks and going back out.

The CO said he’s never written so many over limits and no license tickets in one place in his career. (I’m assuming “so many” meant more than 3)

Years ago when I worked at the Dresser Rock Quarry. I would get a bunch backstrap them, soak them in milk, deepfry, and the guys at work said they were the best walleye they ever ate. This was in the spring when the water was cold. They went fishing for Silvers. DK.

Grew up hauling in WB hand over hand on the Cannon below the old dam in Welch every April. Since the dam came out they’re pretty sparse. They didn’t show up at the next dam below Byllesby either. I thought removing dams was suppose to help fish populations?

Brian Klawitter wrote:

FYI on over harvest, which I don’t believe is the problem…

It’s not the problem anymore because they are gone from being over harvested years ago.

Back in the 80’s through the early 2000’s they were thick.

Now I’m talking pool 5, 5A, and 6. If people would have seen the amount of fish caught back then it would blow your mind.

We fished for them. Yep kept the back portion mostly. There were groups of people that would line the dike wall below the lock and the banks of lock 5 so thick you couldn’t find a spot to fish off shore. Didn’t matter what day of the week. They also had fires going and would eat what they would catch. Those fish were cleaned out of the river years ago.

Sure was fun to fish them. That’ll be one fish never too come back.

The last time I really saw any of what one could call a good number of white bass was perhaps ten years ago. Maybe three years ago a friend and I saw a couple small schools of them working the surface but I haven’t seen a nice white bass in years on pool 4 or 5. I see dink whites chase pin minnows in the marina at Lake City late in the fall but these are small whites, 4″-5″ so they must still have a few that are spawning. What with all the high water the last three or four years has brought along I could see their spawning habitat maybe having taken a hit or maybe the whole dynamic surrounding their prime spawning habitat has changed so much they no longer can reproduce successfully.

fished P4 about 25 times this year up until July. this spring I got into some nice ones down from redwing. not much action in the lake for me. we did get one that was probably 20″ or so that was the biggest I had seen from P4 but that was it. never seen boils on the surface or nearly as much bait as previous years.

I had a couple different friends fishing on Pepin the weekend before last and they both saw large schools of small white bass. They knew they were white bass because they were hitting crank baits, so there are some making it.

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Sorry I missed Brian’s comment earlier.

I can work up a more detailed explanation of what we know, or at least what we have documented about White Bass populations in the Upper Mississippi if folks would like to see that. In the mean time YES multiple long term data sets have documented decreasing numbers of White Bass. I have attached a few of the documents we put together to provide information about different species as part of our regulation review open houses a few years back. I would be happy to try and answer any questions folks might have after reviewing them. We are still largely working from home and rapidly approaching our busiest field season so calling me will not be the most efficient method of contact. I can be reached by e-mail at [email protected] and if there is enough interest I can put together a more complete evaluation of the available data to post here.

Nick

Attachments:

1. White-Bass-Trends.pdf
2. White-Bass-Fact-Sheet.pdf

I also wonder how many young of year white bass are being gobbled-up by the increasing numbers of pelicans/cormorants ?

Last year was the worst year I have seen for white bass,doesn’t help that the gates were up most of the year.Got a lot of nice ones this spring,all were real nice size.But have not seen any big-time surface feeding frenzies.

Thanks for posting, Nick.

As to numbers, my experience much like the others. I don’t target them but have caught a couple larger ones this year. Last few weeks, I also have caught (not sure how) quite a few very small ones. Thought they were shad at first they were so small.

Hey Shockers,

If what you are catching are about 4-5 inch fish those are this years young of year. I also have been catching them in certain areas. When I have found them they are bunched up and as aggressive as a school of piranha attaching baits over and over until one gets hooked.

We were limited in our ability to do field work this summer due to restrictions on certain gear types and inability to distance, but our seining data seemed to indicate reasonable recruitment this year. Our gill netting in the first week of October will give us a better idea of how those fish grew and what numbers we have going into this winter.

Nick

Definitely a few have been used as bait this year

Keep up the good work Nick. We appreciate your presence here.

If anyone is questioning whether white bass are still around or not, head upstream of Prescott on the croix. The lower 1 mile is LOADED.

I’ve recognized this annually, it’s a shad migration after first large cold snap.

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Nevermind….Proof they gone. Seagulls looked as confused as me yesterday .

Would love that information Nick. Always enjoy the science side of fishing.

Keep the data coming!

The last 2 days fishing eyes an sugars we have caught about 12 of this years whites. Also saw quit a few caught by other boats. This was on the upper end of pool 4. Hopefully they are on a rebound.!? . . rrr

river rat randy wrote:

The last 2 days fishing eyes an sugars we have caught about 12 of this years whites. Also saw quit a few caught by other boats. This was on the upper end of pool 4. Hopefully they are on a rebound.!? . . rrr

Sugars Are Just Sweet Saugers. Delicious!!! That’s why we call them Sugars.Yum yum.

I caught two nice white bass on the MN Wednesday night. First two ive caught in years. My dad caught one last night.