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WEB EXCLUSIVE: This Week in the Outdoors: School is in session
BY Luke Clayton, Special to Star Local News
As guide Bob Holmes idled his boat under the Highway 287 bridge at Richland Chambers Reservoir, he eased back on the throttle, uncased the binoculars and glassed the open water ahead.
“Look at those loons setting on the surface about a half-mile down lake,” he said. “I have learned to put a great deal of stock in these birds from the north. Gulls, terns and, in recent years, egrets have become dependable fish locators on freshwater lakes, but loons simply won’t exert the energy to dive unless they know baitfish are in the vicinity.”
I picked up the binoculars and watched the loons popping up and then disappearing.
My guide was right: loons know their business when it comes to locating baitfish.
Catching spawning white bass in creeks and rivers above reservoirs is a big deal, but fishing these spawning runs is hit or miss.
And from past experiences, it is miss more than hit.
Granted, it’s loads of fun finding a little hole on the inside bend of a creek chock full of aggressively feeding spawning white bass, but I much prefer the period (right now) on many reservoirs when huge schools of post-spawn bass return to the mid-to-lower sections of their home waters and chow down on every shad they can catch.
Such was the case earlier this week at Richland Chambers.
According to Holmes, March was a tough month for catching whites and hybrid bass here. Whether all the fish were up in the creeks procreating or simply had lockjaw is conjecture, but Mother Nature got word to the big schools of post-spawners that now is the time to feed and regain their strength from the rigors of the spawn.
On our recent morning on the water, they definitely were following orders.
Holmes, like many fishermen, would rather catch one fish on a top-water plug than five on sub-surface baits. His rod was rigged with a clear Tiny Torpedo; I had a Sassy Shad rigged on a quarter-ounce jig head as I was looking for the makings of an afternoon fish fry.
Being heavier, my bait made it to the periphery of the feeding fish a bit before Holmes’ lighter top-water plug could hit the mark.
As soon as the bait dimpled the surface, I held the rod high, took up the slack in the line and began a fast, jerking retrieve, keeping the bait in the top of the water column. After a few cranks of the reel’s handle I felt a sudden jolt of energy telegraph up the line and into the rod. This was no white bass, the hard strike and reel’s singing drag spoke of something bigger and much tougher in the trenches: this had to be a hybrid striper. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Homes’ top-water getting pounded then, with a big swirl, it disappeared.
We were both engaged in mortal battle with nice size hybrid stripers … and the fishing trip was just getting underway.
The mixed school of white bass and hybrids continued to push shad to the surface for a good 10 minutes and the melee created by dive-bombing birds, shad jumping clear of the water and baits hurled at the bigger swirls is the stuff great fishing memories are made of.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the surface calmed, the birds left and I was thinking Holmes would be cranking the big engine to head off to find more surface feeders.
“See that hump on the graph that tops out at eight feet and falls quickly into deep water,” Holmes said. “The windward side of it is chock full of fish. Let’s see if we can pick a few more up on slabs.”
I doubt if there is a lure anywhere that has accounted for more white bass and hybrid stripers than the plain old lead slab.
These old standards aren’t pretty or complicated in design, but they sure do catch fish.
Painted in white or chartreuse, these elongated pieces of lead are absolutely lethal on fish, holding on structure. In the right hands, they can account for some good action on fish holding near the surface. The funny thing about fishing with lead slabs is that fish usually prefer a certain presentation and that presentation is subject to change on a day-to-day basis.
Sometimes, the baits are most effective when allowed to hit bottom, then ripped up through the column.
Other times, these old standards work best on the fall, when allowed to flutter back down to bottom.
Holmes began working his slab within inches of bottom, hoping to catch fish holding tight to structure. I began the crank and drop presentation, cranking several times on the reel handle, then allowing the lure to flutter back down. On my first presentation, I felt multiple strikes on the falling bait and managed, with a quick snap of the rod, to set the hook on a feisty white bass. Holmes’ rod was bowed in an arc that indicated his bottom-bouncing presentation was also producing fish.
In truth, about the only thing we could do to prevent catching fish was not getting our baits into the water.
So the next couple hours went, fishing 10 or 15 minutes with top waters and soft plastics on jig heads for surface feeding fish, then prospecting near bottom with slabs when the fish moved to the nearest structure. We kept plenty of fish for my upcoming fish fry and, back at Holmes’ fish cleaning table at Oak Cove Marina, transformed them into boneless fillets that would fry up crispy after an hour or so of marinating in buttermilk and Louisiana Hot Sauce.
The summer schooling is definitely underway at Richland Chambers and my guide buddies on other lakes tell me the same story: the whites are out of the creeks and back in the main lake.
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