As spawning run shows, white bass thriving

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Colorado Bend State Park holds two true Texas treasures.

One is Gorman Falls, a spectacular, tree-shaded, 60-foot waterfall creating an idyllic fairyland of ferns and other lush vegetation among travertine pools as Gorman Creek spills toward the adjacent Colorado River.

The other is the reason the not-that-close-to-anywhere, 5,300-acre park on the banks of the Colorado in San Saba and Lampasas counties has been so overwhelmed with visitors the past two Saturdays that park staff have been forced to temporarily close its gates to entrants. The annual white bass spawning run is on, and hordes of the aggressive, deep-bodied, hard-fighting and wonderful-on-the-plate fish are pouring up the river, clustering in eddies and channels downstream from shoals in the rocky current of the Colorado adjacent to the park, and greedily grabbing lures tossed by the swarms of anglers lining the park's riverbank, wading its shallows or fishing from boats. Colorado Bend has a deserved reputation as one of the best spawning-run white bass fishing spots in central Texas.

There's so much interest in Colorado Bend's white bass fishing that, during the spawning run, staff include updated fishing reports on the park's phone line. During the white bass run, anglers get there early to claim a prime spot on the bank or pool in the river.

It's much the same on other Texas rivers when white bass fishing turns white-hot in late winter and early spring. That's exactly now.

"A lot of Texas anglers look forward to this time of year, when the white bass run gets going in the rivers," said Steve Magnelia of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's inland fisheries division. "It's a wonderful fishery. When you find the fish, catch rates can be very high. White bass are very good fighters and a lot of fun on light spinning tackle or a fly rod. They're a great fish to eat. They have a lot going for them."

Their abundance and widespread distribution are a couple of major things white bass have going for them. Originally found in Texas only in the Red River/Cypress Bayou drainage in northeast Texas, white bass have spread - or been spread - to almost all river systems in Texas. And portions of several of those river systems host annual spawning runs that can produce fast, sometimes fish-a-cast action.

The annual late winter/early spring white bass spawning run in Texas rivers can provide enjoyable, predictably productive fishing during a season when other freshwater action often is frustratingly slow. The annual late winter/early spring white bass spawning run in Texas rivers can provide enjoyable, predictably productive fishing during a season when other freshwater action often is frustratingly slow. Photo: Shannon Tompkins Photo: Shannon Tompkins Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close As spawning run shows, white bass thriving 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

This fast fishing is tied to white bass' natural history and the history of Texas' waterways.

Adult white bass are creatures of open water, where they roam in schools (they are pack hunters, not solitary predators), shadowing and plundering clouds of threadfin shad. The scores of expansive reservoirs built in Texas beginning in the 1950s created perfect conditions and habitat for adult white bass to thrive. And the rivers and streams feeding those reservoirs provide the fish with the spawning habitat crucial to their survival and the conditions that create the fast fishing anglers can enjoy.

In late winter, adult white bass migrate from open water to the waterways feeding the reservoirs. Driven by a procreative imperative, schools of whites funnel into the waterways, moving upstream into the current, looking for the right water conditions, temperature, photoperiod or other environmental or physiological factors that trigger their spawning activity. That spawning involves females releasing eggs as males swarm around them releasing milt. Fertilized eggs are carried downstream by the current, hatching in a couple of days, with the fry swept back into the reservoirs, where they grow into adults in two years.

The white bass spawning run typically begins in January or February with schools of males (which don't grow as large as females) entering the river. Schools of females follow, with the spawn - and the best fishing - usually peaking in March and tailing off during April, after which the adults filter back to the reservoirs.

Drought is history

Success of the white bass spawn - and fishing prospects a couple of years later - greatly depends on the rivers having sufficient current to trigger the spawn and transport the eggs. Drought years typically result in a poor spawn. Wet years generally mean a successful spawn.

The severe drought that plagued Texas for much of a decade and peaked in 2011 hurt white bass and white bass fishing in some areas of the state. It even destroyed it in one reservoir.

Falcon Reservoir on the Rio Grande once held a thriving white bass fishery, Magnelia said. But the years-long drought dropped reservoir levels and river flows so low that the lake was for several years cut off from the rivers that feed it and provide crucial white bass spawning habitat. Without access to flowing water, Falcon's white bass fishery disappeared.

White bass fisheries in central and south Texas - in river systems such as the Colorado and Brazos, Frio and Nueces and Guadalupe - suffered in the years immediately following the 2011 peak of the most recent drought. There were years when the Colorado River at Colorado Bend State Park was barely a trickle and the white bass in Lake Buchanan just downstream couldn't access the river, much less pull off a successful spawn.

But that's changed.

"We had all that rain and runoff in 2015 and 2016," Magnelia said. "That produced some strong year classes of white bass."

It takes just two years for white bass to grow to 10 inches or so and reach adulthood. While white bass can live as long as five years, the huge majority of the recreational fishery is less than 3 years old, with most 1 or 2 years old.

Texas white bass anglers are this year seeing the benefits of those 2015 and 2016 rains.

As March begins, white bass fishing has been good in most in the state's traditional spawning-run hot spots. The Colorado River has been a bright spot, as evidenced by crowds at Colorado Bend State Park. But it's also good above Lake Travis and in the lower section of the Pedernales River that enters the Colorado there.

Same for the Nueces River below Choke Canyon Reservoir and the Frio above it.

White bass fishing in the Trinity River and feeder creeks above Lake Livingston has run hot and cold over the past weeks, with good fishing occurring when the river settles a bit after seeing rises from rain runoff. Similar reports have come from the Neches River above Lake Palestine.

The San Jacinto River and its feeder creeks - Cypress Creek and Spring Creek - have yielded good catches of whites when water conditions have allowed.

The Sabine River above Toledo Bend Reservoir, the state's premier white bass fishery during the spawning run, has been a bright spot.

Hitting the limit

"The river is full of fish," Jane Gallenbach of River Ridge Guide Service said earlier this week. "They've been a little finicky at times, but we're catching a lot of fish."

Gallenbach said experienced anglers who locate concentrations of fish have easily taken their 25-fish limits, with Road Runner jigs (chartreuse, white) producing the most fish, especially when tipped with small crawfish. In eddies and areas with little or no current, eighth-ounce jigs have worked best. In heavier current, she's using quarter-ounce baits to get the lure down to the fish, most of which are holding off sloping sand bars.

Most of the Sabine's whites are weighing 2 pounds or more.

"The biggest I've weighed this year was 2-15, just shy of 3 pounds," Gallenbach said. "But our average fish is over 2 pounds."

That's a huge white bass, something the Sabine's nutrient-rich waters are famous for producing.

This year's white bass spawning run appears to be following the usual timetable.

"It kicked in just before Valentine's Day and seems to be right on schedule," Gallenbach said. "It should be go through at least the end of March."

That's great news for Texas anglers who look to the white bass spawning run to provide fishing opportunities in early spring, when fishing for largemouth bass and crappie and other freshwater species can be tough or at least unpredictable.

White bass rank as Texas' fourth most popular freshwater game fish, behind largemouth bass, catfish and crappie. But in early March, they rank at the top for hundreds of thousands of Texas anglers. Just ask the people at Colorado Bend State Park.