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Hybrid Striped Bass
The hybrid bass is not a naturally occurring species. They are produced by artificially spawning a male white bass with a female striped bass. Offspring usually exhibit a wide variety of color patterns which can be confusing when trying to separate them from the young of either parent species.
A hybrid bass can usually be distinguished from a striped bass by its broken lateral stripes along the lower sides of the body (continuous on striped bass) and a distinctively shorter, thicker, and deeper body form.
Hybrid bass can be distinguished from white bass by its two tooth patches on the tongue, as opposed to only one tooth patch on the white bass. As they grow older, hybrid bass become thicker and deeper-bodied, giving them a distinctive short and stocky appearance.
Individuals migrate great distances in response to changing seasons and flow regimes and they congregate in tailwaters below dams in spring and during high discharge periods.
Like stripers, hybrids are voracious feeders and consume any kind of small fish including threadfin and gizzard shad. Young fish also feed on mayflies and crustaceans. Hybrids also travel and feed in schools with peak activity in the early morning or evening.
Hybrid bass feed heavily on shad and grow rapidly, often reaching total lengths of 18 inches or more in two years.
15 to 20 in (380 to 508 mm). The record hybrid is 25 lb 15 oz.
24 pounds, 3 ounces, caught in Leesville Lake, Virginia, in 1989.
The hybrid bass provides an excellent winter fishery in many southern states when many other game species are relatively inactive. Although they readily strike floating and sinking artificial lures, many fishes are taken with chicken livers and shad as cut bait.