White Bass Mania
of Wisconsin’s rivers are notorious for their yearly spring walleye spawning runs. The Rock, Wisconsin, Fox, Wolf, and Mississippi Rivers are famous for these runs. What many anglers miss out on post-run, is white bass runs.
White bass (pictured above), run just after walleye usually stop running. A good old wives trick to knowing when the white bass are running is simple.
When lilac trees and bushes start blooming, it’s always a good bet that the white bass will be running.
White bass are fairly aggressive feeders. Anything from small minnows to jig and grubs and little spoons can catch white bass. There has been staunch debate about the table quality of white bass. Some love it and some hate it. If you are in it for a fish fry, try white bass, if you are in it for fun, try white bass.
tight lines!
Tandem Rigging and Other Thoughts
Not too long ago, the Alabama rig was a big hit in the fishing world. The set-up that mimicked schools of baitfish was celebrated and persecuted for it’s success. A lot of people were using “schoolie rigs” with great success, but the fad died out after the Alabama rig was banned in most large fishing tournaments. Recently, I’ve seen a lot of anglers using tandem rigs for walleye and white bass.
This is the aforementioned tandem rig. For the most part, it’s a rig with two hooks and two identical swimbaits. Generally they are spread out by a couple inches, and they imitate two fish swimming together. As for my opinion of the lure, I’m critical. One of the knocks on the Alabama rig by BASS and other governing bodies was potential snagging concerns. With all of those hooks, snagging was a problem. While tandem rigs don’t have nearly as many hooks as Alabama rigs, Instill have concerns about this rig ending up in fishes bellies more than their mouthes. In the river systems, there are times when it is easy to snag fish with a single hook. Right now, with spawning migrations happening, I feel like this rig is not completely ethical.
As an aside, while I’ve said that I’lol be condensing fish reports during the spawn to protect my spots, I will still make safety reports if necessary. My follow up to this will address that.
