I was fishing for white bass Monday after work and not having much luck. A fellow angler said “come over here, they are all around my boat”

He caught 6-8 but told me somebody had caught 80 there earlier in the morning before the wind started. He stressed that they wouldn’t bite well in the wind.

Fast forward to today, I’m going again after work. But this time I’m going to attempt finding some less windy areas. Using the deep dive app, I think I found a few spots that might work. Looks like we have the typical SW wind today, so at least it will be warm

What that guy told you is news to me when it comes to white bass. In fact, they absolutely love to chase shad and when the wind blows them up against a shallow shelf or island they go into a feeding frenzy. I have had numerous occasions where I have caught tons of white bass one right after another when I found a shallow bank or point that the wind was blowing into and the fish were feeding shallow on shad. The baitfish are crowded into the shallows by the wind and the fish go nuts. Typically I use a white or silver pepper spoon and swim it through these areas. Sometimes I will use a bigger 1/4 or 1/2 oz spoon when I know the whites are closer to 2 or 3 lbs. If conditions are such that the shad are deeper, then I throw the spoons deep, reel and then let them fall a few feet, reel some more, let them fall, etc. I can't think of a time when the wind interfered with me catching whites, but maybe I don't know all the details of the situation where you are trying to catch them.

I have found the migration patterns to vary depending on what part of the lake that I am fishing. In large impoundments like 50,000 acre Bull Shoals I have mostly found them in the old river holes below shoals. Buck tail jigs have been my best producers. The holes vary from 5-25’ deep. In smaller flatter lakes I head for the windiest areas that I can find and throw a slider grub or Arig.

@Jig Man , river holes below the shoals is exactly where we got them tonight! Still had to battle wind but they started chewing before sunset. Got more yellow bass than white bass but they are better anyway! Also got 3 sauger (or maybe walleye) but all too small to keep

Good deal. If you ever do it at night they usually come out of the holes and head up stream. We would get on a shoal above a good hole and fish until they all had passed. Then move up a couple of holes and get on a shoal to get more as they came by. Rinse and repeat until we had to head home to catch a couple of hours sleep before work. I did that 13 nights in a row once before the sssss hit the fan at home.

That’s pretty cool! Thanks for the tips, I’ll have to try that some time

23 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Also got 3 sauger (or maybe walleye)

I believe those are walleye. I can see a white tip on the tail.

On 3/25/2026 at 1:59 PM, TnRiver46 said:

He stressed that they wouldn’t bite well in the wind.

I have caught them in howling winds.

Kind of what I was thinking

Sauger have white that runs the length of the bottom of the tail fin, as well as the spots on the dorsal fins. Walleye have a larger white spot on the tail and less distict spots on their dorsal fins. Looks like a sauger to me.

Got after them again last night

They still in the holes or migrating to spawning shoals?

White bass is what started it all for me. So much fun.

16 hours ago, Jig Man said:

They still in the holes or migrating to spawning shoals?

Monday it seemed like they were still deep. Last night they were inbetween the holes and the shoals with some jumping going on

That sounds like the spawning is on.