For you see, white bass are as schooling a fish as any that we find in fresh water. Knowing the practices of a high-speed, schooling fish will add to your arsenal of fishing opportunities, particularly those opportunities available to fishermen before the opening of other gamefish seasons. Tiny Tunas White bass schools can move into and out of an area at incredible speeds, and their tendencies to move and feed are seldom related to daily weather changes. Seasonally, of course, their habits will vary as the temperature of the water dictates their location in a river system and the depth they will be found at. As an angler, there is one key feature of a white bass s nature that will lock you onto a pattern day in and day out.
White bass eat shad, and lots of em.
Whites swim fast and work in highly competitive schools that require massive food supplies in order to sustain existence. Shad provide this food source at most times and in most river systems throughout the year. The locations that white bass will feed upon shad depend on where white bass can catch shad. Like schools of little tuna in the open sea, a current break, depth change, funnel area, or backwater must be used in order to push or corral bait in otherwise open water. The predators must effectively hinder the forward progression of shad.