![]() White bass prey heavily on smaller fish, but a live river shrimp impaled on a hook will bring every white bass in the vicinity on the run. Here in Louisiana, we by and large ignore them. During these runs, fishermen can catch white bass until their arm muscles burn with fatigue. In many places in the eastern United States, anglers look forward to the spring, when the fish mass to make their annual spawning runs up rivers. In these “jumps” they will take any bait presented to them. In Midwest reservoirs, schools of white bass force shoals of bait minnows to the surface. ![]() ![]() A white bass has only one such patch the other two species have two patches.Ĭalled “sand bass” or “sandies,” along with several other names, white bass have developed a big following among some anglers. Hybrid stripers and stripers will have more than one such bar.Ī fail-safe way of separating the species is to feel for the teeth on the back of the tongue near its center. The body color and the lack of a dependable break in the bars makes the fish similar to striped bass and hybrid striped bass, creating endless confusion among anglers.Īn external distinguishing feature that separates the white bass from its cousins is that typically only one black bar will extend all the way to the base of the tail. Occasionally, like the yellow bass, the black bars above its anal fin can be slightly broken and offset, but the base color between the black bars is white or silver, hence the name. White bass in Louisiana are most common in large rivers and reservoirs, although they will invade almost any overflow habitat in the late winter and early spring when waters are cool and hold a lot of oxygen to gorge before spawning. It is the only one of the three that can reproduce with no access to flowing water. It can be found in back-swamp lakes, as well as rivers and reservoirs. The yellow bass seems to tolerate low-oxygen conditions better than its two cousins. The species is best identified by its yellow body color, which becomes especially pronounced during its February through March spawning season.Īnother distinguishing characteristic it shares with no other member of the family is that the black bars on the lower half of the fish, near the anal (belly) fin, are broken and offset, like an earthquake created a fault line. Although Halbrook’s 2-pound, 10-ounce fish is the largest on record, anything approaching ¾ pound is a good fish in Louisiana. The yellow bass is the smallest in the clan. When fishermen aren’t busy lumping them all indiscriminately under the name “striper,” these two species are commonly called “barfish.”īeyond the fact that both have needle-like fin spines, as well as razor-sharp gill covers that can gash a careless fisherman’s hand open, they are distinctly different. Yellow and white bass are more common in Louisiana than striped bass. They just don’t jump as much as their more-glamorous cousin. All three are extremely hard fighters, and pound for pound will outfight a largemouth bass. Those three - along with their Atlantic Coast cousin, the white perch (not what we call white perch in Louisiana) - make up the family Moronidae, commonly called temperate basses, an entirely different family than the black basses.Īll three gamefish voraciously attack artificial lures and live baits, especially in the cooler months of the year.
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