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 Winnebago (Menominee Park, Oshkosh)
Lake Sakakawea (Fort Stevenson State Park)
Lake McConaughy (Ogallala)
Wilson Lake
Lewis and Clark Lake
Harlan County Reservoir
Devils Lake (Grahams Island State Park)
Maumee River (Side Cut Metropark)
Milford Lake
Tuttle Creek Lake
Mississippi River (Grafton)
Sandusky River (Fremont)
Carlyle Lake
Rend Lake
No locations match that filter.
Regulations by jurisdiction
NTND
Stale: last verified 98 days ago.
non tidal
- Creel
- 30
North Dakota: 30 white bass/day, 60 in possession.
Source · verified 2026-06-03
NTSD
Stale: last verified 98 days ago.
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
Stale: last verified 98 days ago.
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
Stale: last verified 98 days ago.
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
Stale: last verified 98 days ago.
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
NTWI
Stale: last verified 12 days ago.
non tidal
- Creel
- no daily limit
Wisconsin inland: no daily bag limit and no size limit (grouped with rock and yellow bass and bullheads).
Source · verified 2026-08-28