By Keith Sutton

That April night was cool and clear. An owl hooted off in the distance, hunting along the shores of Big Maumelle River. Beyond us in either direction, we could see the lanterns of dozens of anglers fishing along this tributary of Lake Maumelle, just west of Little Rock.

"Got one!" my fishing companion shouted.

At the edge of our light, I could make out the silvery form of a white bass struggling against my buddy's line. I saw a fin break the surface, and then the swirl of the predator's tail.

Another white bass nailed the little jig I was retrieving across the stream bottom. "Hey, I've got one, too!" It was our tenth double of the night.

The whites fought furiously, but we brought them quickly to the shore, shook them off the hook and cast again. The response to each cast was almost instantaneous. Each time we savored the powerful, circling run of a sizable white bass.

The action went on cast after cast for nearly four hours. I would like to tell you exactly how many fish we caught during that time, but in all honesty, I cannot. We released every one, and the adrenaline surge I experienced precluded any possibility of accurate mathematics. There were scores, though - of that I have no doubt. And those hours of ultralight fishing encompassed some of the most mind-boggling fishing action I've ever experienced.

Photo by Ron Sinfelt

For a few short weeks each spring, Arkansas anglers enjoy some of the year's fastest fishing. This is the season when white bass spawn, and fishermen who know where to find them and how to catch them can enjoy fun-filled hours where a fish caught every cast is not unusual.

Timing the spawning run is critical to success. If you fish at the wrong time, you won't catch any whites no matter how many use the stream for spawning. Fortunately, it's easy to time the run by tracking water temperature in the stream you plan to fish. When it hits 50 degrees, you'll find schools of white bass gathering near the mouths of feeder streams. At 58 degrees, the upstream surge begins. In south Arkansas, this may occur in early to mid-March. In northern counties, it may be well into April. The spawning run can last as long as a month, but typically, it starts and ends within the span of two weeks.

Where should you fish? Arkansas has good white bass fishing in all quadrants. But, as I said before, the best white bass spawning streams feed major impoundments. That's where you should fish to be in the center of action. Here are several to try this season.

The lake is fed by one fork of the White River that goes back south and east as far as Crosses, Delaney and St. Paul. The West Fork of the White ranges southwest as far away as Winslow, West Fork and Greeland, while the Middle Fork travels northwesterly about halfway between and paralleling Arkansas Highway 16 and U.S. Highway 71. These three forks add up to many miles of prime water where you can always find springtime action.

War Eagle Creek, the fourth largest tributary, flows in from the east side of the lake. In this stream, whites can travel only as far as the dam at War Eagle Mill, where they congregate in huge numbers to create an excellent fishing site. You'll find spawning whites well into April in all these waters.

In this area, you'll rarely go wrong using live minnows, lead head jigs or a combination of the two. For minnows, use a heavy sinker tied to the end of the line to drag the bait to the bottom. The minnow is lip-hooked on a small, single hook attached to a dropper line tied a few inches above the weight.

Lead head jigs must be also have enough weight to carry them to or near the bottom. For shallow water, lighter jigs - 1/16 to 1/8 ounce - work well; in deeper or more turbulent water, some anglers go as heavy as an ounce.

When using a jig/minnow combo, consider adding a No. 8 treble hook as a trailer. To do this, tie a short length of line to the bend in the jig's hook, and tie the treble hook on the other end. Hook a live minnow through the lip with the jig hook; then, hook one barb of the treble hook in the minnow's tail.

Most fishing is done during the height of the spawning run in March or April, in primary tributaries. The headwaters of the lake - the Ouachita River, especially - give up enormous numbers of whites. Small in-flowing creeks may also hold a few spawners, but better fishing is available in large tributaries like the South Fork of the Ouachita at Mount Ida and the North Fork below Mt. Tabor.

Pre-spawn fishing can also be good. Just prior to their spawning runs, whites begin schooling at the mouths of creeks and streams, and many are caught by anglers trolling across points adjacent these tributary mouths. Small deep-diving crankbaits that imitate shad garner lots of fish, but other shad imitations that work deep perform well, too.

Whites and hybrid stripers move up the tributaries at the same time, and the same tactics usually result in mixed stringers. Ultralight tackle is OK for whites, but if you use it, you take a chance of losing any sizable hybrid that might come along. Good lure choices for both species include 1/4-oz. jig heads with 3-inch grubs, 1/4-oz. lipless crankbaits or 2-inch crankbaits in shad colors.

Bull Shoals' white bass tend to be hefty and in excellent shape. Two-pounders are a dime a dozen, and the big egg-laden females often push the 4 1/2-pound mark. When they ascend feeder creeks to spawn, it's not unusual to find them in only 1 to 2 feet of water.

In March, the male white bass, mostly 1- to 1 1/2-pound fish, show up on the shoals and bars in the mouths of tributaries, usually in 10-15 feet of water. Jigs, grubs, lipless crankbaits and tailspinners like the Little George will take them. In late March or early April, as the water warms, male whites ascend the spawning streams and are soon joined by the females. After spawning, both sexes return to the main lake. It's during their upstream and downstream runs that most whites are caught, often by bank fishermen working the streams with spoons, small crankbaits or live baitfish. Good areas to try include Big Music Creek, Sugarloaf Creek, West Sugarloaf Creek and Carolton Hollow Creek, all on the south (Arkansas) side of the lake.

Most spawning activity is concentrated at the west end of the lake where the Big Maumelle River flows in. Anglers gather on the lower 10 miles of river, some fishing from boats, others from the banks. Night fishing seems to be most productive, especially when casting small spoons, spinners and live minnows. Fishermen often have a hard time finding a good spot to fish, because people are crowded shoulder to shoulder on the more easily accessible stretches of river. Most will agree, however, that the possibility of catching several two- to three-pound whites per night makes any extra effort worthwhile.

Dardanelle contains varied structure attractive to white bass-coves, tributaries, rock piles, shallows flats, jetties and islands. On warmer days in late March, whites start moving up into creeks and small rivers that feed the lake. They know spawning time is near, and as the water warms, they move into these tributaries to look for spawning sites.

Two excellent white bass fishing areas are the Spadra Creek and Little Spadra Creek arms just south of I-40 at Clarksville. In those areas you'll find 5 to 10 foot depths that jump up to 2 and 3 foot flats where white bass stage prior to and after the spawn. This area produces lots of whites ranging from one to three pounds and more. The Shoal Creek area near New Blaine on Arkansas Highway 22 provides similar conditions.

Another good area to try is where Illinois Bayou runs in and crosses I-40 on the east end of the lake at Russellville. The dark, shaly bottom around the Interstate bridge conducts heat better, so the water warms earlier, and that's a place where many anglers catch early white bass.

These are just a few of the many productive white bass spots you may want to try. Lake Dardanelle is 50 miles long and has 315 miles of shoreline, so if one place doesn't pan out, try another. Sooner or later your efforts will pay off.

For additional information on white-bass fishing in Arkansas, including fishing regulations for the waters mentioned here, contact the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, 2 Natural Resources Dr., Little Rock, AR 72205; 1-800-364-GAME; www.agfc.com.

(Editor's Note: Keith Sutton is the author of Fishing Arkansas: A Year-round Guide to Angling Adventures in the Natural State. To order an autographed copy, send a check or money order for $28.25 to C&C Outdoors, 15601 Mountain Dr., Alexander, AR 72002. For credit card orders, log on to www.ccoutdoors.com.)