The hybrid and white bass bite has cooled off, along with the water temperatures in Richland Chambers, Navarro Mills and Lake Aquilla, according to guide Allen Morehouse.
“The bite has been good before the rain,” he said. “It’s been a typical early spring pattern with the water still a little cool for spawning. We keep getting rain, which cools the water temperature down.
“It’s about 57 degrees right now.”
Morehouse said the water is still stained due to rising four feet in the past 48 hours.
“About a week or 10 days ago, (the whites) were moving into shallow water,” he said. “Now on Richland Chambers, they are in 25-35 feet of water, and it is still a decent slab bite. The fish we are catching have egg sacks, but they are very small. I still think they are a few weeks from spawning.
“I’m not real sure it ever started on Richland Chambers, and a lot has to do with the influxes of water.”
Morehouse said he doesn’t look for the fish to be in the shallows on Navarro Mills until early April.
“The fish are biting on clouser minnows and flies for the fly anglers,” Morehouse said. “There is also a slow crappie bite mixed in. It will pretty much be shutdown until the water clears.”
Morehouse said he expects the hybrids and white bass to begin running in the next two weeks.
“If the water temperature isn’t 65 degrees, they won’t be shallow,” he said. “I actually think 68 is the magic number. They seem to have a sense of urgency then, and the action can get stupid good.”
Look for more reports on white bass, hybrids and the largemouth bass bite across the state in the next issue of LSON, out Friday, March 23.
To contact Allen Morehouse, call (254) 717-2946.
