08-11-2003, 10:28 PM
[cool]All members of the predatory "rock fish" family will herd baitfish to the top and hammer the snot out of them. Down here in Arizona, Lake Plaesant has a good white bass population and there are several times a year when "whitie" fans chase the boils. This happens a lot about this time of year, when the young-of-the-year threadfin shad cruise in huge schools. Whites and "schoolie sized" LMB rove around the lake looking for these "meatballs" and really froth the surface while gorging.
We have another cousin of the striper down here too...the yellow bass. They also find shad schools a good reason to hit the top.
In the lower Provo River, I used to lay waste to foraging white bass that ran upstream to feed on the newly hatched carp minnows each spring. On a couple of occasions I followed splashing schools upstream for a long ways, casting a gold Mepps spinner into the commotion and hooking fish on almost every cast.
In the Jordan, they could be eating carp or the spawn of several different other species...including their own. Anything they can corner and chomp is on the menu. Of course regular chubs and shiners are a possibility too, but I have never seen too many in the Jordan.
This taste for minnows is a good reason to harvest and freeze a bunch early in the year. Later, when all the fry of the carp and other fish have grown beyond easy eating for the whites, a thawed minnow from the freezer often has a lot of appeal to otherwise hungry fish.
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We have another cousin of the striper down here too...the yellow bass. They also find shad schools a good reason to hit the top.
In the lower Provo River, I used to lay waste to foraging white bass that ran upstream to feed on the newly hatched carp minnows each spring. On a couple of occasions I followed splashing schools upstream for a long ways, casting a gold Mepps spinner into the commotion and hooking fish on almost every cast.
In the Jordan, they could be eating carp or the spawn of several different other species...including their own. Anything they can corner and chomp is on the menu. Of course regular chubs and shiners are a possibility too, but I have never seen too many in the Jordan.
This taste for minnows is a good reason to harvest and freeze a bunch early in the year. Later, when all the fry of the carp and other fish have grown beyond easy eating for the whites, a thawed minnow from the freezer often has a lot of appeal to otherwise hungry fish.
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