Fish identification: Striper, hybrid, or white bass?

What bass is this?

Sand bass. Aka white bass.

My first impression is sandbass as well. But a closer photo sure would be nice to be 100% sure.

What lake were you fishing?

I was fishing Somerville, yea the photo isn't the best. Why would it not be a striped bass?

Well, so far as I can tell, there's been no stripers stocked in Somerville, but it does get hybrids pretty regularly. Not sure if you're asking about stripers or hybrids.

Striped bass are far more elongated, with much more prominent stripes.

Hybrids are deep-bodied like sandbass, and generally have multiple darker (sometimes 'broken') stripes.

Sandbass tend to have one dark stripe and the others are lighter. But their eyes are larger in proportion to their body size than a hybrid usually is.

The key test is to check the center tooth patch. If it's triangular, it's a sandbass. If it's elongated and split, it's a hybrid.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdoor-annual/fishing/freshwater-fishing/bass-identification

I have been catching several of the new crop of hybrids released into Somerville this year. That looks about the size so it could be a hybrid as well.

If in doubt and the fish is not 18 inches, toss back and repeat. Intel curve can be very costly not only in $ and cents but in our future game management !

I tossed him back but really didn't think it was a white but now I'm not so sure

Sometimes it can be hard to tell when they are the size of a white bass. One of the best ways to properly identify the fish is by looking at its tongue. There is an off white/pale area that is call a "tongue patch". On white bass there will only be one small patch. On a hybrid or striper there will be two tongue patches that look almost like a deer foot print. I remember which is which by thinking white bass are small and only have one tongue patch, hybrids and stripers are bigger and have two tongue patches.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/regulations/outdoor-annual/fishing/freshwater-fishing/bass-identification

Definitely white bass or sandbass

If it calmed down when you held it then it is a sandbass if it keeps fighting its a hybrid.

Best way is tongue patch!

Hybrids is also known as wipers up north.

Cigga, that's an awesome chart. Guys, I'm going to sticky this topic, as it's something that comes up on a regular basis and every new angler could use our help on fish identification.

It's a sandabass!

Whitey...white, sandie...or samdbass.

Sidewaysbass

Sandy...

how was the lake level?

Its hard to tell but it does appear to be a white bass. But if it has really dark lines and a yellowish color it could also be a good sized yellow bass. A pic of a yellow bass should be added to the ID chart as well with the other 3 fish.

Awesome thread!

Sand Bass. Young Hybrids are very bright Colored fish. Some will have a blue tint to their backs. Fish pictured is very dull...."Sand" colored.

Sandbass

Does anyone have real tooth patch photos of a white vs hybrid?

Never heard of Hybrids called 'Wipers' before. Interesting

Definitely a white bass

They get "Wi" from white bass and the "pers" from stripers. Put it together and you get "Wipers".

A lot of folks in other states call them wipers. Threw me for a minute when I heard it the first time too.

I work with a guy born and raised in Kansas. He asked me what we meant when we said “Hybrids”. When I told him he immediately called it a Wiper.

I was raised in Kansas, they have a number of things twisted and turned ! What else would one expect from a populous that clicks their heels together , hoping for a miracle !

There called Wipers in Colorado when I moved down here took me a bit to get used to Hybrid in fact I thought I was not find Hybrids when all along I was!

I'm still a little confused. What are these 2 above? Also is the tooth patch always accurate?

The tongue patch is 99% accurate. I’ve heard some guys are having trouble if the double patches on a hybrid are close together. Those Look like nice sand bass to me. I’d need to see the patches

The one laying on the deck is absolutely a hybrid. The you're holding looks like a sandbass, but hard to say for sure at that camera angle.

The green fish laying on it's side is dinner.

I will say, I've been looking at the tooth patch but i'm still worried. One fish had one patch that was oval-heart shaped (if that makes since), but the stripes looked more solid and had 3 or 4 going all the way to the tail, instead of just 1, so i let him go. I did keep him on the boat hoping to ask someone at the boat ramp to help me but no one was around (risky but i'm trying to learn).

is this a white patch??

Look at the TPWD rule book. A hybrid has two distinct tooth patches. A sandbass has a oval glob I will call one tooth patch. Is it possible to have a hybrid with one patch?? Might be possible, not sure.

If it is short and it looks like you have three lines to the tail, toss it back. conservative move!

Good luck,

In Iowa, they call them wipers instead of hybrids.

I downloaded your photo and enlarged it as much as I could. Unfortunately, there's not enough resolution on the photo to tell if the tooth patch is split. But I've circled the patch you should be looking at. On medium to keeper sized hybrids, you'll see a very distinct split or separate patches.

This is a hybrid with 2 elongated tooth patch. Hope you guys can see it.

One more tongue patch for good measure, I just happened to think about this when I reeled it in. 7.85 LB fish.

Great pics guys, thank you.

What type of fish is this? White, Hybrid, or Striper? Caught at Lake Grapevine, 1.71lb. It was dark so I couldn't get too great of a picture.

Sandie

Thanks! That's a white bass, right? That's what I was leaning towards, but it was dark and I've never caught them before so I figured I'd ask and make sure.

I was taught that if the lines on the side are solid, its a sandie, broken lines are hybrids. Either way, here on Fork, they go in the livewell for fertilizer.

Not at all accurate unfortunately, sand bass have broken lines (including the lateral line sometimes). Catch Lake Lewisville sand bass and you'll have broken lines on every single fish. Wish we could tell from the lines though! It'd be super easy.

Eric

Definitely a sand bass because too stocky to be a striper and no broken stripes like a hybrid would have

Sandie

Definitely a sandbass and a very good one too.

Fish Lake Limestone for Sandbass and you will quickly learn to throw the old, one solid line, broken lines, 2 lines, etc etc rule right out the window. When Lake Limestone was so low for a few years that all the ramps were out of the water, the Whites got really big and had a couple extra years of age on them. Many of us would swear we were catching close to 3 lb. small Hybrid when the lake filled back up. But there are none in the lake. Older Whites will start looking more like small Hybrid. The tooth patch is the best way to check. And if that's unclear, throw em back.

I posted about a crazy and productive long weekend of white bass fishing on another post, about 40 or 45 very large white bass averaging around 16", gravid females always looked close to popping. I caught a crappie and 4 or so LMBs, too.

So, I sent a few photos to Dr. Richard OTT, Lake Athens' TPWD representative to let him know they were sure healthy this year. Dr. Ott responded by mentioning that since Lake Athens isn't on a big river system, not even many creeks of any size, that there are few spawning opportunities of those sorts to run up in, say like the Neches north of Lake Palestine. He went on to say that when "interspecific" competition is very low, that is, for this species, there aren't hundreds of thousands of them like on some other lakes, that while the density is much lower, he noted the quality (size) is often greater.

Dr. Ott confirmed that in the absence of rivers to run up, white bass will look for wind swept shallow water with desirable bottom features. This is what I have . . . about 50 feet directly in front of my boathouse!

I just went down over lunch, bored, made just a few casts. Very light drizzle, no wind or wind blown waves we get up here in the cove, not the best time of day either . . . but I caught 2 small LMBs and one female white bass right in my average length zone from this past weekend, approximately 16".

The moral of the story is on healthy lakes without big rivers and creeks creating running water and currents, etc., there likely won't be as many white bass but the ones that you catch might be much largerif the lake is healthy with good food sources.

Quality over quantity! The ones I caught a few days ago look like they could literally feed on the white bass in Chandler up on the Neches River.

Brad

My favorite honey the sand bass

Full credit to Bruce N for best pics I've ever seen to illustrate what to look for. First is white bass, second is hybrid

Here's a better pics. This one is a white bass with a single tooth patch. Red arrow pointing to tooth patch. Tooth patch almost shapes like a heart.

Here's a hybrid with two tooth patch. Big or small hybrids will have two tooth patch. Patches looks like deer hoof in the sand. The younger hybrids double tooth patch may look slightly translucent but the patches are there.

Here's both fish side by side.

These are awesome pictures thank you so much! Send them to TXFWD! These are way better than their posters!

Identity this one

Both of these are hybrids. This is why checking the tooth patches are so important.

I am not an expert (i started this post). For the picture a few post ago, I am not certain. The lines aren't pure solid touching the tail, which leads me to think white. But i would look at the tooth patch plus other factors to decide. Tooth patch has helped me out a lot.

Wish the photo were better resolution. My first impression is small hybrid.

100% sandies

Hybrid

Don’t know why but I find Somerville bass are hard to tell sometime because there are some monster white there. Some I have to checking over and over to make sure it’s a white. If any doubt I ask whoever catched it to threw it back. This always cause a arguement but few second later they would forget because busy fighting another bass.

It’s never worth it if there any doubt.

.

Yellow Bass?

We regularly catch White Bass Hybrid at lake Somerville that stumps everyone. So I thought I would present it you guys to see what your thoughts are.

On legal size WB and equal size Hybrids IMO they are very easy to tell apart before I even look inside at the tongue.

But we have a fish that grows to 16", that has all the traits of a WB except the bone structure is huge and the fillets looks like 2 strips of bacon. A standard issue 14" WB will have twice the weight in the clean fillet in comparision. The other exception is they have very dark color. They are really green on their backs. I called a LMB on one Saturday because it was so green.

Anyway here is a picture of one...lower left in the photo. The WB beside it is roughly 12".

The one on the bottom left just looks like a chunky sandbass, and the one on the top right looks like it could be a hybrid.

That's just it...it's all bones. The fish to the right will yield double the meat of the one on the left.

Our WB on Soverville have a lot of stripes but the tongue checks out. I check them all.

Also notice the pectoral fin and the gill cover are much darker (green)...it's hard to see in the picture but the back has a lot of green on it.

Hey guys ID these two tongues;

Thank you for sharing the pictures. Both fishes are hybrids or strippers

I've had the game warden argue that tooth patches mean nothing. After whipping out the book and showing him that's what the state says, he left me alone. I can't do a dna test on the water.

Agreed

catfish

Heres a short video I made to quickly show the differences in white bass, hybrids, and stripers. I hope it helps others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnoEeZp7k-s

Is this Lake Louisville?

Generally they are most active in periods of low light, such as dawn and dusk, and in late winter they tend to concentrate in deeper areas of the lake near in flowing streams. In the spring they may undergo spawning migrations to upstream lake areas. After growing sand bass beyond 50 mm their diets consist of mostly small fish and large zooplankton. We specialize in catfish and Crappie, Sand Bass

Fisherman's Cove Lodge
http://fishermanscovelodge.com/
1860 state highway 309, Kerens, TX
(903) 641-5905

Has to be a sand bass...


Fisherman's Cove Lodge
http://fishermanscovelodge.com/
1860 state highway 309, Kerens, TX
(903) 641-5905

Great video RTF. Thanks

I think the white bass are breeding with hybrids in Lake Waco. Single tooth patch, only one line that goes all the way to the back but it has broken lines. What will a game warden say this is?

[quote=SteveStrasemeier]If it calmed down when you held it then it is a sandbass if it keeps fighting its a hybrid.




Yep!

Caught this one yesterday below Denison Dam. At the time I was pretty sure it was a white bass (only felt one tongue patch) but then when I looked at the picture today compared to other white bass I have caught I noticed the lines were much more apparent and more than one goes to the tail, which makes me think it may be a hybrid. I have caught a ton of white bass and stripers before but not sure I have ever caught a hybrid. Any help?

White. No doubt in my mind

That’s what I was figuring. Thanks.

If you throw everything back in Lake Somerville that's looks like this fish...you will go home empty handed...very, very few whites in that lake that stripes are not broken. I've ask but didn't get a good answer when I caught the water body record Striper below LS d019. She said they would have to do DNA testing to see if the whites were crossing.

But they have to be,

Doesn't look like any stripper I've ever seen. Now striper, well, that's different. Never mind! The bottom one is a hybrid, top one not sure

broken lines on a white are as common as sunrise/sunset. Distinguishing marks for hybrid are more than one line all the way to tail, and toothpatch that looks like a Roman Numeral. Two teeth rows, not one.

that's a white

sandbass

It's a funfish, caught while fishing and having fun.

What is this one? From Sulphur River.

White bass.

Thanks for the confirmation. And agree.

Almost looks like a yellow bass....dorsal fins joined?.... no tooth patch either on yellow bass..silvery yellow is a sign also....
white bass usually have a single line to tail........

I always take the easy way out during a discussion if the we ask what a game warden would think......picture and toss it back. With the invention of grocery stores, no one lives the lake and goes hungry.

Good call!

Here’s a Somerville hybrid for you

Here's an Elm Fork hybrid from Irving, TX. Frasier Dam Recreation Area

And here a couple of Elm Fork Whites, Frasier Dam Recreation Area, Dallas side

see the difference?

Need other set of eyes. This was caught on Grapevine and it looks like a hybrid to me. Wasn't me, but a friend took this. Mr R knows hybrid/Sandies/stripers and pinged me for my opinion.