It's that time of year baws. Post your White Perch/Sac a lait/crappie total last trip

High fence pond don’t count.

Bass won’t eat crappie once they are past a certain (relatively small) size. You’ll have to keep tabs on populations as you go, crappie spawn first and often gobble up the bass and bream fry when they spawn later.

January through this part of February is generally my worst period for them. Not on the trees yet, but seem to have left the piles I know of. Soon.

It's also time for the White Bass run. I never heard of them when I lived in Baton Rouge, but here in Texas they are a blast to catch this time of year.

They are like salmon in that they spend most of their lives in lakes, but swim back up tributaries to where they were born when it's time to spawn. I've got a creek that feeds in to a major lake here in SE TX and both times I've fished for white bass there this time of year it's been super productive.

The creek has a shallow section where the bottom is large rocks and clay that make shoals that the fish can't get beyond if the water is low. They will stack up there against the shoals in the hundreds. I put my kayak in under a bridge about a mile upstream of the shoals and paddle down. Super easy trip.

They like to hit white beetlespins and chrome rattletraps. Last year my buddy and I lost count. We each took home 10 big ones and released more than 30 each.

have any of you guys fished for them?

Also, they are good eating. Much better than black bass (large mouth)

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Also, they are good eating. Much better than black bass (large mouth)

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I'm going to have to disagree on that comment. But they are very fun to catch on light tackle.

The Canadian River dumps into the lake, real muddy on that end so haven't tried to fish that area. There's one creek that dumps into the lake and it's barely a trickle and I did very well there last spring. But typically what happens is I'm targeting sacalait or walleye and locate them and we start loading the box. Wife doesn't care what we catch as long as she's catching.

I live on an East Texas lake. This time of the year I go out to my dock and drop a jig to see if they've come in. On February 9, I caught my first. And have been catching a few every day since. But they are gigantic white crappie. So for me and our lake, Feb 9 is the turnover date for the fish to move shallow. I expect the bass to follow soon.

Edit: For now, it's catch and release.