From 50 yards away you could see the long fishing rod bending and bucking like a well-spurred rodeo bronc. As you walked up closer, you began to hear the off-and-on whines of a spinning reel, screaming under pressure. Then you saw the angler's face and you knew instantly -- this was no ordinary fish.

We were standing on the banks of the upper reaches of Inks Lake not far below the big dam which impounds Lake Buchanan, the jumbo Highland Lake just upstream from Inks. It was late winter, the season when white bass begin staging for the spring spawning run. This time of year the whites (or "sand bass" as some folks call them) stack up below dams where they're in easy reach of bank fishermen.

In fact it was at this same spot over 50 years ago that I caught my very first white bass. It was a January afternoon. The skies were gray and the wind out of the north had a bite to it. But I was an adolescent, excited to be casting my first fishing rod, and in my excitement and youth, I didn't feel the cold at all. I made cast after cast into the rolling tailrace water. Finally I had a hit, set the hook, and the fight was on. The same fish today would seem ordinary, but to a 12-year-old, a 15-inch white bass on light tackle in swift water felt more like a marlin than a panfish. I think three sandies succumbed to my Abu Reflex spinner before it got too dark to fish. At any rate I was hooked on white bass -- and still am.

And Inks is still a good lake for white bass -- and lots of other fish too. Unlike its upstream neighbor, Lake Buchanan, Inks is maintained at a more or less constant level, which means that aquatic vegetation has a better chance to grow, giving black bass a bit of shoreline cover. And at least one cove of Inks is filled with standing timber -- more good cover for structure-loving largemouths. If you're after largemouths, Guide Jackie Headrick,( http://www.emptypocketsfishing.com/, 512-793-5127) who fishes Inks regularly, recommends fishing plastic worms and to ...

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