# 1/8/2013 Report: The white bass run has started!



## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

I took a field trip with Mike (Matulemj) and Garrett Meyers (GarretMeyers) over to the West side and we absolutely knocked the snot out of the white bass. We hit the water around noon and thanks to Garrett's fishfinder, we were able to find fish pretty quickly holding in 15-20 feet of water. Air temperatures were low 40's at best with water temperatures were 38 degrees. The wind was manageable at the start, but by 3pm it was pretty rough out there.

Most fish were taken on vertical jigs or blade baits. Color and size didn't seem to matter to the fish, although anything less than a 1/2 ounce lure was useless against the current. 

Garrett cheated and showed up early and struck first with a nice gar. Mike caught the first white bass which was a good sign because it was almost 2 pounds on the scale! All of the next 25 white bass ended up in the 1-2 pound range which I'll take any day. Unfortunately, no hybrids were anywhere to be found. We did catch 5 gar and several sucker-mouthed fish which I think were carp (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Highlights of the day were curing Cabin Fever while catching the first batch of fish for the year, watching Garrett fly around the water on his pimped out pontoon, dragging a tail-hooked 10+ pound gar into my kayak (bad idea...), and having a triple-header with 3 fish on at once.

Here are a few pics. I hope all of you can get out and catch some too. Mike said it best: "There is no such thing as an off-season!"

























































GET OUT AND GET SOME!


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Wow super day for the middle of winter! Well for anytime of year for that matter. you guys are killing em lately. Thats either a quillback carpsucker or a river carpsucker BTW. The river carpsucker has a bulby knot right in the middle of its lower lip while the quillback doesn't other than that I couldn't tell one from the other. i think it's Maelmerfuddhat not matulemj too.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Looks more like a buffalo then a river carpsucker based on the shape of the head. Great report guys!

Salmonid


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## QueticoMike (Sep 25, 2008)

Thanks for the report, can't wait until I can fish the river again!


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## imalt (Apr 17, 2008)

Garrett post some pics of the pontoon. I am looking for ideas for mine this year.


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## Mean Morone (Apr 12, 2004)

Very nice white bass. My buddy and I had a great time in TN using a "blade bait". Fun way to fish! Way to go.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

I was thinking buffalo too. Great chunky whities! Were you on the Ohio?


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## Daveo76 (Apr 14, 2004)

Great job! Looks like a Quillback


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## j777extra (Oct 22, 2011)

Looks like a good day fishing. Keep it up for all of us stuck at home.


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## Matulemj (May 29, 2012)

oldstinkyguy said:


> . i think it's Maelmerfuddhat not matulemj too.


Haaaaaa! I don't hunt wabbits! That hat is legit!

The "sucker" that I caught I can say without a doubt that it was a Quillback. Garrett saw it up close, he can confirm. That being said, I am pretty confident that HOUSE's fish is a Quillback too. 

Besides those nasty gar I got hooked into, that Quillback was the only fish that pulled drag. Mine was 16" and couldn't have been more then 3 pounds, but when I set the hook and the fight was on, I thought for sure it was a big ol' wiper. I was surprised how much fight this fish had to offer! I can't complain, it was fun to fight some fish, regardless of its species, especially in January! 

The LMR is projected to go up 3 feet by Saturday and the Ohio River is going to be blown out for the next week starting Saturday as well. We are going to have to get out onto some lakes or retention ponds for the time being.

The quote I posted: "Off season? Never heard of it." They are out there gentlemen, just got to bundle up and find them!


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Im pretty sure its a Buffalo, I catch Quillies all the time on the GMR with the fly rod and here is a picture of one: 

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/spe...x/quillbackcarpsucker/tabid/6730/Default.aspx


You decide....LOL

still always a great fight weather it be a quillie, river carpsucker or a buffalo

Salmonid


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Just for fun, check these out for refference!

also look at the bigmouth Buffalo:
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/spe...Index/bigmouthbuffalo/tabid/6549/Default.aspx

and the Smallmouth Buffalo: 
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/spe...dex/smallmouthbuffalo/tabid/6757/Default.aspx

and the Black buffalo:
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Default.aspx?tabid=22720

Salmonid


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## Matulemj (May 29, 2012)

Send me a link to the species of Buffalo you think it is then you might have my vote.


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## Salmonid (Apr 14, 2004)

Im going with the most common, a Smallmouth Buffalo, they are mid current feeders and the most often taken with artificials

Salmonid


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## Matulemj (May 29, 2012)

That dorsal fin gives it away and wasn't something I was looking at in his picture. The one I caught had that long skinny dorsal fin, where as HOUSE's does not. Smallmouth buffalo indeed. Good info!


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

The guys on roughfish.com have a whole lot of trouble taking quillbacks even on live bait. That said, its not impossible to get one on a lure. I keep seeing you guys posting pics on here of hogsuckers which are the same way.

EDIT: now that I look again, that fish does not appear to have the big black eyes of the buffalo. It may still be a buffalo but the black eyes are a characteristic that I use to identify them.


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## GarrettMyers (May 16, 2011)

Yeah, the one you caught had that long extended dorsal fin, looked exactly like a quillback. I got a fish ID on here for a buddy a couple months back, it looked like the same fish. My buddy caught his on a 3" white grub. I did briefly hook into something in the 'bass area' that was bigger and instantly doubled my big ugly stik over. I think it was probably a wiper, coulda woulda shoulda... We had a great time out there and I have never slept so good in my life after being beaten by that wind for so long. 


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## Mean Morone (Apr 12, 2004)

I am more interested in the white bass. Those are some real nice fish especially this time of year. I will give my 2 cts on the rough fish, and that might be all it's worth. I've caught a few quilbacks in my day and that doesn't look like one to me. They have a very tiny mouth for the size of fish they are. The body type is different too. I don't know what that thing is, but I don't think it's a quilback.


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## fallen513 (Jan 5, 2010)

It's just a plain ol' river carpsucker. Boga'd.


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## DLarrick (May 31, 2011)

Question on the "white bass run"
when you say the run has started do they typicly run this time of the year through out the river? im guessing you were down by the OH River but will the whites be up river too? never really tried to target white bass so i have alot to learn.


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## Matulemj (May 29, 2012)

Alright. This was bothering me because I hate not knowing something. I retract my statement of it being a Smallmouth Buffalo. The reason I thought it was a Smallmouth was because of its dorsal fin. Upon further research, I am confirming that this is just a river Carpsucker. I made a little diagram to show my hypothesis. 










I flipped Rob's fish on its side and found a couple fish around its size to compare it to. Aside from the eyes, I also noticed that the scales of a Carpsucker are shiny as the Buffalo's are more dull. All the other tailfins, dorsal fins, etc. match both species of fish. Don't base the comparison on its mouth because Rob's fish has Boga grips pulling its mouth forward, as Fallen513 stated. I will let you decide.



As far as the White bass run goes. I think it's safe to say that Rob was being facetious with his title to this thread. The White bass run starts in the spring when they swim upstream into feeder rivers/streams/creeks. As much as some of us want it to be spring time, we aren't there yet.

The key to winter fishing, in my opinion, is slowing down your action. The fish are more dormant and less active, so they will not go after your bait unless it is right in front of its face. Our success came with vertical jigging blade baits. The blade baits make vibrations that make the fish react. I also believe that our success was amplified by vertical jigging on a boat (or in our case, a kayak) because the bait is right in front of their face and they have time to react to it dangling in front of its face, as opposed to the bait being casted and the bait being dragged from side to side, as the fish don't have time to react to it when it is presented this way. What I mean by "vertical jigging" is that you hit the release on your reel and watch the bait sink into the water. There is no casting involved. Straight up and down. 

Even when I am wading and casting in the winter, I slow my retrieve speed waaaay down. If you think it is too fast, it probably is. When I wade and cast, I am jigging allowing the bait to hit the bottom of the river for a brief moment. 

I'm sure you will see all kinds of reports of White bass come spring time when the run is in full swing.


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## HOUSE (Apr 29, 2010)

DLarrick said:


> Question on the "white bass run"
> when you say the run has started do they typicly run this time of the year through out the river? im guessing you were down by the OH River but will the whites be up river too? never really tried to target white bass so i have alot to learn.


Don't get too excited just yet, D. I wasn't talking about "THE" white bass run, I was just trying to be funny because I was so surprised to catch them. They usually run more towards March/April depending on the weather. I think they look for water temperatures showing a steady rise in the mid-50's, which we saw in March of last year with that freakish warm spell. I recorded 4 days in a row (March 12-16) where I landed over 40 of them each trip. I didn't fish the Ohio River much last year, so I can only imagine how early they began staging outside of the feeder creeks and tributaries. Right now the water temps are in the 38*degree range, so these white bass were just hanging out looking for an easy meal. I was vertical jigging, so most of the strikes were either very light or I foul-hooked them under their mouth while lifting my lure. 

I'm no expert on whities by any means, but I sure catch a lot of them.. I thought it was odd that we were catching so many of them. We were actually hoping for hybrids, but I'll take a day of white 1-2 pounders any day of the year!


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## GarrettMyers (May 16, 2011)

imalt said:


> Garrett post some pics of the pontoon. I am looking for ideas for mine this year.











This is without the battery, oars, fishfinder, or tackle. It's tough to see, but there's an anchor where that white rope is. Not the best pic, but I don't want to get it out of my truck... Hoping I can use it again soon.


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## imalt (Apr 17, 2008)

GarrettMyers said:


> View attachment 68507
> 
> 
> This is without the battery, oars, fishfinder, or tackle. It's tough to see, but there's an anchor where that white rope is. Not the best pic, but I don't want to get it out of my truck... Hoping I can use it again soon.
> ...


Looks good. I use a rope with a chain tied on the end for an anchor and for slow trolling through fast water. The best part of the trolling motor is leaving those kakaks in the dust.


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## DLarrick (May 31, 2011)

thanks for the reply House. i kinda figured that was the case with it not really being the run but figured i would ask. you always post some good reports and the info is very informative. congrats on another fine outing.


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## GarrettMyers (May 16, 2011)

imalt said:


> Garrett post some pics of the pontoon. I am looking for ideas for mine this year.











Ready for the LMR tomorrow.


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