Species
White Bass
Morone chrysops · family Moronidae
Live · updated
A hard-fighting open-water schooling bass of big reservoirs and their feeder rivers across the Plains and Midwest. White bass run up tributaries by the thousands to spawn in spring — the run is a calendar event on waters like McConaughy and the Missouri reservoirs — then chase shad in surface-busting "jumps" through summer. Often hybridized with striped bass to make the "wiper." Abundant and lightly regulated, so creel limits are generous or absent.
Preferred conditions
- Water temp
- 55–80°F (ideal 68°F)
- Tide
- either
- Moon
- either
- Depth
- 4–30 ft
- Active months
- Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct
Best white bass conditions today
Lake Sakakawea (Fort Stevenson State Park)
Milford Lake
Tuttle Creek Lake
Wilson Lake
Carlyle Lake
Rend Lake
Lewis and Clark Lake
Sandusky River (Fremont)
Lake McConaughy (Ogallala)
Lake Winnebago (Menominee Park, Oshkosh)
Mississippi River (Grafton)
Harlan County Reservoir
Maumee River (Side Cut Metropark)
Devils Lake (Grahams Island State Park)
No locations match that filter.
Regulations by jurisdiction
NTND
NTSD
non tidal
- Creel
- no daily limit
South Dakota: no daily or possession limit on white bass (removed statewide in 2019).
Source · verified 2026-06-03
OH
great lakes
- Creel
- no daily limit
Ohio Lake Erie and its tributaries: no daily limit on white bass — an abundant spring-run target on the Maumee and Sandusky.
Source · verified 2026-06-03
NTKS
non tidal
- Creel
- 15
Kansas: 15/day for white bass, striped bass, wiper, and yellow bass in combination on most waters.
Source · verified 2026-06-03
IL
non tidal
- Creel
- no daily limit
Illinois: no statewide daily limit on white bass (abundant on the big rivers and reservoirs).
Source · verified 2026-06-03