Challenged by the stinging defeat of this past Saturday, I was up and back at ’em early this morning to try to figure these white bass back out after last week’s cold snap threw things into a funk.

I launched at sunrise today to give the morning bite a try (something I’ve not done in a while due to predictably light winds in the mornings these past few weeks).

I found only one pocket of activity this morning. Right at Area 348, just adjacent to the river channel birds were working in a ‘fishy’ manner (although there was definitely loon-influenced activity, too) here and after running sonar for a while, I found fish suspended from 12 to 40 feet deep over 50-52 feet of water.

The only thing that would tempt these scattered, suspended fish was a sniping tactic. I used this technique to single out individual fish or fish appearing in pods of 3-5 fish, and catch then one at a time as they slowly mulled around in this area no doubt draw by the equally cold-stunned bait.

By 9:30 most of the action was over with 12 healthy white bass landed for the effort.

I did manage to pry two more fish — one white bass and one crappie — off the bottom of the river bend at Area 392, but the fish were once again locked down tight under clearing, brightening skies and calming breezes.

I am very encouraged by this week’s forecast calling for highs in the low 70s and, more importantly, overnight lows that will be warmer than the surface water temperature is currently. This will create a net round-the-clock warming effect which will spur the upstream movement of the white bass and begin getting the crappie and largemouth back in the game. These last two species should start showing up in my catch these next 2 weeks.

TALLY = 14 FISH, all caught and released

TODAY’S CONDITIONS:

Start Time: 7:15a

End Time: 11:25a

Air Temp: 50F at trip’s start.

Water Surface Temp: ~46-47.8F

Wind: Winds were light from the SSE at ~7.

Skies: Skies were overcast with thin fog until 9:30am.