White Bass on Dardanelle

[Wes Ramsey]

I'm headed to Dardanelle for the weekend when I get off work Friday. Since we did so well on cats last time, I'm gonna put out 2 trot lines and see what we can do. While we're waiting on the cats to bite, I wanna try my hand at white bass. I've heard they're a blast to catch, and the AGFC report this week said the shad were running again, and if you got into a school of whites you'd get tired of catching them long before they got tired of being caught. I can't imagine getting tired of catching fish, so I wanna give it a shot, but I have no idea where to start. Does anyone have any tips on where to find them (specific to Dardanelle since my fish finder doesn't work) and what sort of lure/bait to use? I have a few spoons that should work, but I'm always looking for a reason to buy more :thumb: Problem is, I dunno how to fish a spoon, either. Any help is appreciated!

I've got a couple of spooks that worked well on black bass, so I plan to try those and some flukes/worms in some weed beds. But mostly I'm there for the fish and beer :biggrin:

[ozark deerslayer]

I live about 200 yards from lake dardanelle. I fish for whites and stripers all the time there. The best place to go early and late in the day is the nuclear plant discharge bay. You can either anchor out in the bay or troll around, either way works well. Try and stay about 100-300 yards out from the orange markers that cross the discharge. I went a few days ago and caught about 200 whites in an hour. I use silver spoons, white or yellow tubes jigs, white or yellow rooster tails. They'll bite about anything when the shad run. It will look like the water is boiling when they come by after the shad. Just cast out and reel in at medium speed. Once mid-day is in, head out to the river across from the nuclear plant to Delaware Bay, The point on the campground there is usually full of whites but they come and go during the day. You may not catch one for an hour then you might catch 100 the next 30 minutes. Don't get discouraged at either place, just wait for them to run before you give in. In the mornings its usually from 45 min. after light till about 7:30-8:00 then it shuts off. In the evenings, the last hour, hour and and a half is best.

PS the crappie are starting to pick up as well and we caught some in 8ft of water fishing about 4-5 ft. deep. GOOD LUCK!:biggrin:

[faithfularcher]

WES, i was over there this past weekend fishing a bass tourn. and i saw several schools of whites and even caught several stripers schooling just to the right when you come out of the russelville state park ramp. They were right out in front of the swimming area and most of the whites were past the marina up by all the docks on the right . HOPe this helps . IT sounds like slayers places are your best bet but these might be some back up places . Most of these fish schooling were in the afternoons .

[Wes Ramsey]

Man, I really appreciate it guys. I've never caught a white bass before, and I'm anxious to catch a mess, both for fun and for supper! A few months ago I took a buddy with me that hadn't fished in years - he gave up because he never caught anything. We got lucky the 1st few times I took him out, so now all he wants to do is fish :smack: Can't say I blame him! I'll let ya'll know how it goes.

[Wes Ramsey]

Okay, another question...when the whites are schooling like that, are the bigger fish usually under the school of whites? I'd love to catch some stripers or hybrids, but I don't know where to find them either...

[ozark deerslayer]

It seems to me the schools either contain bigger fish or smaller ones, usually not both at once. Sometimes the smaller ones will start hitting first then the big ones will jump in for a while then back to the smaller ones. All I can say is hang on to your pole because them suckers can sure pull hard for their size. As far as stripers are concerned, just hang on, they all pull hard.

[SS]

I'm heading to Dardanelle Thursday and Friday has anyone got any current hot spots I could try. If the're not biting below the dam I'll try the outflow from the nuke plant.

[SS]

Well, last thursday we launched below the dam, they weren't running any water so we locked through to the lake. caught a few in the rocks above the dam. Then went to the nuke plant outflow cove. We fished the first cove on the left (north) and caught a few, in the next cove the largemouths had run shad into the back and were schooling. During the next three hours we caught somewhere in the neighborhood of 125 bass. They we hiting spoons, shallow diving crank baits, I was using a mann's 3-, and top water baits. Most weren't to large 1-1.5 but a few were pretty good 3.5-4.

It was by far the most bass I've ever caught at one time.

[three rivers]

The outlet is prime time for big skipjack during the winter. Bait is hard to come by these winter months and the outlet for a couple weeks will be full of them. We are going to run down there in the next week or so to try and stock up some of those big skipjack for these tough winter months on the mississippi.:twothumbs

[peewee]

Hey three rivers I have heard the skipjack catching is not as good as before 9/11 back before that you just parked in the parking area and fished. We used to catch them till we got tired from December till March on inch pearl colored curly tails and chartruse feather jigs.

[three rivers]

I've been told the same thing peewee. Last year we hit it just at the right time i guess cause we caught 188 in two hrs only to stop because we ran out of somewhere to put them. I have seen a fella tie off to that barrier only to be greeted by a another fella from the power plant with a M16 who politely told him to remove himself from that barrier. My first time there a couple years back they tested the emergency system which scared the bejesus out of me and my fishin partner...............