The spring white bass run follows a bell-shaped curve, starting tentatively, then ramping up and peaking before it inevitably falls to a finish. At the run’s dreaded end, most anglers hang up their spinning rigs, jigheads, and white curlytail grubs until the following spring. If you’ve wondered what it would take to successfully pursue white bass after the spawn, consider using downriggers.

Downrigger fishing can yield returns and extend your white bass season from Postspawn in late spring right up through the following winter when these freshwater pelagics again return to reservoir headwaters and stage for the spawn. Downriggers allow you to accurately present small artificial lures in deep water and in a way that no other method can—not driftsock drifting, three-way rigging, trolling leadcore, or even towing the famous Hellbender-Pet Spoon combination. Downrigging covers water quickly, eliminating unproductive areas and enabling you to focus on, and pass your presentation over, active fish in short order.

Downrigging Preparation

In its simplest form, a downrigger consists of a boom arm with a crankhandle-equipped spool of cable and a rod holder on one end. A deeply grooved pulley wheel is affixed at the opposite end of the boom to guide the cable. A weight (typically 6 to 12 pounds or more) is suspended from the cable off the pulley end of the downrigger, while the remainder of the cable is stored on the spool.

The weight is raised and lowered using the hand crank. The weight-and-cable combination maintains a near-vertical orientation in the cable while trolling, which allows for precise depth control. A release clip connects the fishing line from the rod and reel to the downrigger weight, keeping the line and lure at a desired depth. The release clip also keeps the trolled lure at a set distance behind the weight.

If you already have a downrigger mounted on your boat, check it over closely, especially the last 3 to 4 feet of cable at and above the weight. Inspect the connections and the cable for frays. If you’re just getting started with a new ’rigger, mount it where it works for your needs. Being able to watch your rods while keeping an eye on your sonar is ideal. Make sure your downrigger ball displays on your sonar unit, and check that your sonar is plumb and level, as a correctly positioned transom-mounted or through-hull sonar transducer shows the level at which your weight is tracking relative to the depth at which fish are holding.

Adjust your release clips before you get on the water. Make sure that both your fishing line and the friction pads of the release clips are soaking wet as you adjust the release tension by trial and error when not on the lake. When in doubt, err on the tight side. Hooking a fish and having to manually trip a release is better than dealing with false releases. The release clip should never be so tight that you can’t manually trip it by powerfully sweeping your rod upwards.

If you’re new to downrigging, confidence comes with practice. Do your mapwork before hitting the lake, and experiment in high percentage areas. Main-lake points, junctions between creek channels and main river channels, riprapped dam faces, large humps, and community holes known for holding white bass are all good places to start. At the beginning, avoid undulating bottoms, which force you to make frequent depth adjustments. About the only places downriggers do not excel is in weeds and standing timber.

Tackle and Equipment

For my downrigging, I use Cannon Easi-Troll manually controlled units, along with Church Tackle’s Adjustable Flex Clip and Adjustable Stacker Line Releases. Most manufacturers offer rather short leaders on releases, but I prefer a leader of about 22 inches. A longer release provides more vertical travel for fish that are hooked but which do not trip your release. Greater vertical travel equates to greater movement telegraphed to the rod tip for you to observe.

A long leader also allows your lure (assuming you are not using a diving lure) to travel just slightly higher than the downrigger weight does, so you can adjust your downrigger weight up or down to the exact depth at which you’re seeing fish returns on sonar. It also allows your presentation to travel just slightly above the eye level of those fish, so they are sure to see your offering.

The best rod for white bass downrigging is a light-action 7- to 8-footer with a slow action, bending smoothly from tip to butt. Less expensive fiberglass rods excel in this application. A casting reel with a smooth, quality drag is a must. I spool up with 12- to 15-pound-test monofilament in clear, smoke, or dull green. My favorite combo is an Eagle Claw Starfire SF407 7-foot casting rod, matched with an Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 5500C3 reel loaded with 12- to 15-pound Ande mono in clear or dull green.

Start with a small, shad-imitating lure. My favorite is the Luhr Jensen Pet Spoon, but I’m always prepared to match the size of the shad the white bass are feeding on with other lures. Some other good options are the Yo-Zuri Pins Minnow, the Storm ThunderStick Jr., and the out-of-production Storm ThinFin. Experiment with the many other smaller, shad-imitating minnowbaits and spoons available. Checking disgorged stomach contents of the fish helps match lures to forage.

Get Rigging

To start, head to deep, open water. Put your boat in gear and motor slowly forward. Lower your weight to 20 to 25 feet (no lure attached, yet) and then adjust your sonar unit’s depth range and sensitivity so that the ’rigger weight shows on your sonar screen. Because the weight tracks directly under your boat, the weight’s sonar return appears as a fairly straight horizontal line. Once the weight consistently shows on sonar, execute a slow turn to the left, then to the right. You can see how the weight rises when on the outside of your turn and how it descends on the inside of a turn due to centrifugal force.

Now it’s time to move to a high-percentage area you’ve researched in advance and watch your sonar as you motor around the area. Look for bait and gamefish consistently showing at the same depth range. This could be on or within feet of bottom, or in a narrow, suspended band off bottom, especially if a summer thermocline has set up.

With your boat in gear and moving slowly forward, cast your lure out or strip out by hand between 30 to 50 feet of line. I typically troll more quickly (2.75 to 3 mph) when searching for bait and gamefish, and then slow down my outboard as much as possible once concentrations of fish are found (2 to 2.5 mph). Now, engage your reel so it’s no longer in freespool, then loosen the drag so that the line freely plays out without birdnesting, with just a light pull by hand. Reach out and grab your fishing line beyond the rod tip with one hand as you hold your rod with the other hand. Place the butt into the downrigger’s rodholder while maintaining your grasp on the line.

Next, insert your line into the release clip, making sure that the clip and line are on the side of the downrigger boom opposite your direction of travel (between your downrigger boom arm and your outboard). Lower the weight to the depth that fish are showing on sonar. Stay within 1 to 2 feet above these sonar signals, never below them.

Your loosened drag lets line pay out while preventing the release from tripping. Once the weight is at the desired depth, tighten the reel’s drag to “fighting” tension. Reel in any slack that was inadvertently released so your line is parallel to your downrigger cable.

Once the fishing line is taut, continue to slowly feed line into the reel by hand, a few inches at a time, with one hand while reeling with the other, until the rod is bent nearly double with its tip pointing down at the water. Inspect the reel spool to make sure the drag is not releasing as you troll. Lastly, look at your sonar to be sure your weight is still being tracked.

As you troll, manually adjust the depth of your downrigger weights to match the depths where sonar targets are showing. When you raise a weight, make sure you take the resulting bow out of the line by again slowly feeding line into the reel as you reel in. When you need to lower the weight, first strip out the amount of line equal to the depth change you are about to make, and then lower the weight. This avoids a false release caused by pulling the line out of the release as the weight falls, and saves the hassle of loosening and retightening the drag every time you adjust depth.

When you see fish on sonar and have the weight appropriately adjusted, remember that the lure is several seconds behind it. Maintain a straight course to make sure it tracks directly past those fish you just saw on sonar.

Once you hook a fish, one of two things can happen: 1) The fish pulls hard enough to pop your fishing line from the release and the rod pops straight up, then bends slowly back over in the direction of the fish; or 2) The fish doesn’t pull hard enough to trigger the release, and the rod tip bobs erratically while still doubled over.

If the release doesn’t get tripped, remove the rod from the holder and reel in line while lowering the rod, until its tip is buried in the water and pointed down toward your release. Then, with your thumb on the spool to prevent the drag from slipping, pop the rod sharply upwards to manually trip the release. Take your thumb off the spool and quickly reel until you feel the weight of the fish. Fish taken from deep water have a tendency to make a surprisingly hard single pull once the sun hits their eyes near the surface. Anticipate this surge and either adjust your drag or use your rod to buffer the pull.

Timing the Bite

Downrigging is productive from the end of the spawn to the time white bass stage again in the late winter. It’s more effective in full light conditions than during low light. In reservoirs, there’s often a frenzy of white bass activity on either side of sunrise and sunset. Although whites can be caught on downriggers at these times, they tend to be tightly schooled and aggressively feeding, a situation when vertical jigging presentations excel. But, as soon as that bite slows or dies, get the ’riggers in the water and work that productive area over until you’ve combed out the still-active fish.

Another caveat is surface-feeding situations. If white bass are aggressively feeding over open water, catch what you can on top. But, as soon as the peak of the activity has passed, turn on the sonar, get the weights overboard, and be prepared to extend your catching for another 30 to 40 minutes on downriggers.

I’ve found that in Texas waters, once the surface temperature drops below 41ºF, the downrigging bite sours until the temperature comes back up a bit.

Most any gamefish appearing on sonar are apt to strike your downrigger offering. I’ve taken striped bass, hybrid stripers, largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass, white and black crappie, sunfish, drum, catfish, carp, gar, buffalo, and more. Of course, a lot of white bass, too, when most other anglers hang it up after the run.

*Bob Maindelle, Salado, Texas, guides on the waters of Central Texas and specializes in white bass and hybrid striped bass: Holding The Line Guide Service, holdingthelineguideservice.com, 254/368-7411.