it has been mighty mighty slow, as in I have never seen it this slow-slow. Maybe guys like tube dude who go after them a lot can offer an opinion. At this time last year I was having trouble keeping them off.
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[#0000FF]The current white bass "situation" is the result of several factors.
The big reason for the lack of voracious schools of whities right now is the up and down temperatures. Water temps need to hold near 65 (or above) before white bass "get frisky". The average water temp in UL briefly reached above 65 last week...during the warm spell...but has dropped back down even below 60 on my trip yesterday.
Once the water temps rise a bit we can hope for better whitie action. But it will likely not be as good as the past two years. The larger size class fish in 2011 spawned well and then reached the end of their short lives. Last years larger fish reached 12 inches with only a few larger ones. But they had a poor spawn with lower water conditions.
The young that hatched from the poor spawn also had a tough time. Their shoreline reeds they used for shelter were either left high and dry or too shallow to use for protection. That left them open to more predation. The surviving young also had less food with the mud beds that produce midge larvae drying up in the sun. And there was less zooplankton for all species of fry.
Some baby white bass fared better than others. By the end of summer and early fall there was a wide range of sizes observed in young-of-the-year whitettes. Some had grown to the typical 5 inchers and others were still skinny 3 inchers. Walleyes were happy with that. Plenty for them to eat and no cover for the exposed whities.
There was a long hard winter and the ice cover lasted longer than usual. Fish that stayed in shallow areas under the ice suffered from lack of food and depleted oxygen. There were fish kills observed in Provo Bay (mud lake) and other areas when the ice cover came off. White bass died in bunches. And even at Lincoln Beach there were lots of white bass just gulping air at the surface for a while after ice off.
In short, this last year has thinned the herd. There are plenty of survivors and they will repopulate the lake. But with this years low runoff and lower lake levels it might be another marginal to poor year.
Too early to jump off our tackle boxes but it looks gloomy.
The few whites I have kept recently have not had any food in their tummies. Not even midge larvae or leeches...their customary winter and spring food supply. And the eggs in one of the females I caught yesterday were still very small and undeveloped. That can change rapidly with warmer temps though.
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The venerable TD has all the details as always haha. The majority of white bass, up to 97 percent, are now the 2 year old class from two spawns ago. They are at about 8-9 inches and there was no food last summer for some reason and they are starving, no egg development at all that I've seen. I highly doubt there will be much of a spawn. Spawning window will be over in just one week regardless of water temps at this point. Better hope for rain and heavy snow next winter or a major crash is inevitable. Right now the walleye are the fattest I've ever seen! It's warm enough, lmb have spawned 2- 3 separate times already. This week is likely the last lmb beds for the season at Utah lake. Time to head elsewhere.
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