By Allen Tarvid
Page 2

In the northeast corner of the state, Wright Patman and the Sulphur River are the best of the best. High numbers of whites enjoy tremendous growth in the fertile system, pressing 10 inches in length in just their first year.

Lake Caddo's Alligator Bayou area can offer good white bass action from December on into the spring run. The key is finding areas with the best current flow. Usually, the area from Devil's Elbow down Government Ditch is productive; the junction of Kitchen Creek with Cross Bayou is another good spot.

Good spring runs take place in the tributaries feeding Lake O' The Pines and Lake Caddo, but the best is in the Sabine River from about Longview on down to Toledo Bend Reservoir.

Improved tailraces below the Wright Patterson and Lake O' The Pines dams offer good white bass fishing for non-boating anglers.

In deep East Texas, Toledo Bend probably has the biggest white bass. Fish up to 4 pounds are common during the spring run up the Sabine River. During the summer, whites seem to restrict themselves to the upper half of the lake rather than move down to the dam. Few anglers go to Toledo Bend for white bass, and unmolested schools of fish terrorize the shad in the upper lake's boat lanes.

Sam Rayburn Reservoir also has a considerable white bass population, with good spring runs up the Attoyac and Angelina Rivers. River access is limited, and the fish aren't as numerous or as big as those in Toledo Bend (you have to put up with "little" pound-and-a-half fish). During the rest of the year the whites tend to stay in the upper one-third of the lake.

Moving back toward the center of the state, Lakes Somerville and Livingston are great for white bass. Somerville has good spring runs up Nails and Yegua Creeks, and Livingston's White Rock and Caney Creeks are popular spots. Somerville's tributaries pass through wildlife management areas, so public access is good for anglers without boats. Livingston's white bass commonly run 18 to 20 inches in length. Expect Somerville's fish to run closer to 14 inches. Both lakes currently have a 12-inch minimum size limit.

In the Dallas/Fort Worth area, the lakes with the highest catch rates are Benbrook, Grapevine and Lewisville. Ray Hubbard also has an excellent white bass population, but it's overshadowed by its reputation for producing big hybrids.

Slightly east, near Corsicana, Richland-Chambers is excellent in terms of both number and size of fish. Cedar Creek Lake, just to the north, is a traditional favorite that keeps on producing. Lake Athens is another good bet. It has an abundance of 14- to 18-inch whites, and the local fisheries people have trouble convincing fishermen that they are really whites and not hybrid stripers.

About 30 miles south of the Dallas/Fort Worth area, great white bass fishing in the Alvarado city reservoir is a well-kept secret. In a sampling of about a hundred fish, biologists were surprised to find that the average size was a smidgen over 2 pounds. A bit farther south, Lake Whitney continues to support great white bass action. Just east of Waco, near Groesbeck, Lake Limestone is one of the area's best producers year in and year out.

In the Austin/San Antonio area, Canyon Lake is hard to beat. The 12-inch minimum length limit instituted there about two years ago is improving the size of the fish. The lake is popular with white bass anglers, and creel surveys show that most do pretty well. The lake has recovered from the '97 floods, and most parks and launching ramps are open again. Canyon also supports a good spring run up the Guadalupe River.

The best white bass lake in Southeast Texas is Choke Canyon, south of San Antonio near Three Rivers. A tremendous spawn took place four years ago and those fish now weigh up to 2 pounds. The '98 spring run was washed out by four bad rains and the harvest was low, so the schooling activity this summer should be outstanding.

The spring run up the Nueces River from Corpus Christi Lake is usually good, but the fish tend to be a bit smaller than those in Choke Canyon. Lake Texana, just southeast of El Campo, also has a great white bass population and would be a standout if it weren't in competition with Choke Canyon.

Many anglers have forsaken white bass and shifted their pursuit to its larger cousins, the striped and hybrid striped bass. Some have even switched to those overgrown, big-mouthed members of the sunfish family that like to be referred to as "bass."

It's tough to stay true to any species of fish in the face of all of the great opportunities in Texas. But while I've strayed to nearly all of the other fish, my favorite ultralight and I keep coming back to the white bass.