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White Bass
Species Information
| Scientific Name: | Morone chrysops |
| Environment: | Lake, River |
| Ideal Temp: | 54-68°F (12-20°C) |
| Technique: | Bottom Fishing, Casting, Fly, Jigging, Trolling |
| Lure Type: | Bottom Rig, Crankbaits, Flies, Jigs, Plugs, Soft Plastics, Spinnerbaits, Spoons, Topwater, Trolling |
| World Record: | 3.09 kg (6 lb 13 oz) Lake Orange, Orange, Virginia, USA 31-Jul-1989 and tied on Amite River, Louisiana, USA 27-Aug-2010 |
| Other Names: | white bass, silver bass |
The white bass, silver bass, or sand bass (Morone chrysops) is a freshwater fish of the temperate bass family Moronidae. It is the state fish of Oklahoma.
White bass are distributed widely across the United States, particularly in the Midwest. They are very abundant in Pennsylvania and the area around Lake Erie. Some native ranges of the white bass are the Arkansas River, western Lake Erie, the Detroit River, and Lake Poinsett in South Dakota; they are abundant in the Winnebago lakes system of Wisconsin; and they are also very abundant in Oklahoma. White bass have also been found in rivers that flow to the Mississippi. Native to many northern habitats, they have been introduced in many different waters around the United States, particularly in southern locations. They were also successfully introduced to Manitoba starting in the 1960s, where they have gained importance as a sport fish.
he species' main color is silver-white to pale green. Its back is dark, with white sides and belly, and with narrow dark stripes running lengthwise on its sides. It has large, rough scales and two dorsal fins. The more anterior dorsal fin is much harder and appears to have spines on them. Although these are not true spines, this type of fin is called a spinous ray. The more posterior of the two dorsal fins is much softer, and is thus called a soft-ray. Because the vertebrae do not extend into the tail, the white bass has what is called a homocercal tail. The body is deep and compressed laterally. Most grow to a length between 10 and 12 inches (25 and 30 cm), though they can reach 17 inches (43 cm) or more. Because the dorsal and ventral portions of its tail angle inward toward a point to create a clear angle, the tail is said to be notched.
The record size for white bass caught on fishing tackle is 6 pounds 13 ounces (3.1 kg) shared by fish caught in 1989 in Orange Lake, Orange, Virginia, and in 2010 in Amite River, Louisiana.
White bass are carnivores. They have four main taxa in their diet: calanoid copepods, cyclopoid copepods, daphnia, and leptodora. They are visual feeders. When not frightened, they will bite readily at live bait such as worms and minnows. Only the largest fish will feed on other fish, and as the summer season progresses, there is an overall trend towards eating fewer fish. Fish that are able to accumulate lipids over the summer are better able to survive cold winters. When looking at midwestern white bass, particularly in South Dakota, diet overlap occurs between the bass and the walleye. As seasons progress through the summer and fall, the amount of diet overlap decreases as a result of both fish increasing in length.
White bass inhabit large reservoirs and rivers. When mating in the spring, they are more often found in shallow rivers, creeks, and streams. White bass are found in high densities in the upstream segment of rivers. This portion of the river becomes the most degraded, as a number of different kinds of fish live in this segment, as well.
Latest White Bass Fishing Reports and Spots
The water is starting to clear with the lake level near normal pool and the water temperature has been hovering in the low to mid 50's. The bass (
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All caught in the same spot yesterday–Time to fish! The rain we got in the last three days has cooled the river down and sparked some really (
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The rain we got the last two days really has not affected the water levels we are still very very low. However it did cool the river off a litt (
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I am posting a little early this week to allow time to prepare for the Customer Appreciation tournament. Remember lines in at 6:30 back at the (
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Fishing on Eagle Mountain Lake has been insane! The channel catfish are fired up the blue catfish are coming off the beds and starting to bite (
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We haven’t seen a lot of anything from the Maumee River the last week or so. This time of year the Maumee is mainly Catfish so we sent our gir (
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Its Time to do a Rain Dance. we have some beautiful weather right now however due to lack of rain for the last few months the river is running (
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It’s that time of year the channel catfish are fired up and the white bass are on the move in the main lake! We’re catching excellent numbers o (
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White Bass are still in the river. Now that the weather has calmed a bit we are seeing a good white bass bite today. We are seeing a decent a (
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we will have minnows for sale in our grand rapids Shop as of today We’ve had a chilly few days and nights and it definitely slow down the (
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