Hey Ronc--Nice to see you back on --line? Hows that new boat working out? Had not noticed any post from U for awhile? Thought you might have gone south for the winter? I finally have my boat working right --Nice 465.00 Dollar CDI unit did the job--Motor runs like a champ! See you out on hubbard--let me know the next time you head out?__Rick

I will add my 2 cents worth I know that the Hybrids in the Hickory creek Arm of
LL go through the motions of spawning and are doing so in the same are as
white Bass, This year with the lack of flow in the creeks alot of white bass
took advanatge of the backs of creeks and grass and some runoff with alot grass,
they spawned in the lake.
The creeks north of 35 bridge were full of whites and hybrids 2 to 3 weeks ago and
for about 2 weeks I fished in the same spots with customers and caught lots of hybrids and sandbass.
I am convinced that a small percentage of the Hybrids in Lewisville have probally produced some off spring.Thats just my gut feeeling and I could be wrong I am no Biologist .

The fish that a customer from Houston caught 2 weekends ago looked different than a
normal Hybrid and the lines were not visably broken I thought it was a striper.
Well TPW says it is a hybrid and was probally 4-5 years old.The weight was 10lbs 3 oz
The fish had already empty eggs and was a female.

I believe that if you catch a big female like bigdad did this weekend I would
take my chances and release her with the hope that nature will find a way to make more like her.


Thats my take and it is just opinion,,The bottom line is that they are a great game fish and I hope they do find a way to make babies cause I sure like chasing them!

You are right, it is a guess. Many hybrids between or among species are just as fecund as each of their parent species(eye-ringed lovebirds, thousands of orchids, and some sunfish). Other interspecies hybrids are sterile (I don't have an example). And some hybrids are much less viable than their parents (hybrid bass and even mules).

Chromosomal makeup certainly has a lot to do with it, but it isn't just sheer numbers and complexity which creates the reproductive difficulties.

Wow, that is great info. I wish that the state could come up with a known fact. All of this is very interesting. I wonder what it will be like in 10-20 years. Hopefully, there will be bigger sandbass with all that fighting power of the hybrid. If anyone has another link, please post it, im interested in reading all I can. They say that the more you learn about your targeted species, the better you are at getting em. All said, what a great fighting fish!!!!!!

Somerville is loaded with funny whites and hybrids that make it real hard to identify them by the usual methods (tongue patch and lateral lines etc.) I believe these fish are F1 hybrids - where a stocked hybrid does successfully breed back to a whitebass. Both Stripers and Whitebass are free spawners so it stands to reason that hybrids would partisipate in the spawning. I have read that the eggs from the hybrids are more like stripers eggs and don't fetilize effectively as whitebass. What is really unknown here is how often hybrids successfully spawn and what their offspring's growth rate compares to either parent.

Yeah, that's interesting. I'd always read that hybrid striped bass were sterile and could not reproduce....But that was years ago and I'm not sure there was any actual evidence to support either argument. I'd be suprised though if hybrids couldn't reproduce in the wild if the conditions were right. Anyone know for sure?

I think these articles are saying that there may be a 1-3% cross back (hybrids successfully spawning with whites) but that it is 1 in a million (but not impossible) to have a successful hybrid X hybrid spawn. And 1 in a million ain't 1 percent.

I didn't say reproducing with only hybrids. What I read was 2-3% in reproduction total, be it with whites, stripers, other hybrids, etc. Im not arguing, I was just repeating what I read, which by the way, never said one in a million. It just said 2-3%. Either way, they are 100% fun to catch!!!!!!

I know we get "natural" hybrids in canyon between the stripers and whites. Sometimes you catch some weird looking stuff that you can't really I.D. by looking at the fish & game manual.

i have a 7yr old boy and of course he wants to keep fish and sometimes we do. i am having a hard time identifying fish that are not normal looking sandies and are not a normal looking under hybrids. Here is my point it is easy for me to identify a pure sandie i can just look at it and feel very confident that "we can keep that fish," thats what i tell my son, and not be afraid that when a game warden stops me and wants to look at my fish he won't give me a ticket for harvesting an under hybrid. i know what to look for when id'ing a sandie,stiper,and hybrid but lately i am not so sure what i am looking at.

Bigdaddy,

Sometimes the smaller hybrids are hard to i.d. If I have any doubts or I'm not CERTAIN it's a sand bass, back in the lake it goes. I wouldn't want the fine that goes along with an illegal fish.

Bob

I hear ya, I have issues looking at the tooth patch as well. so what I did was laminate the TPWD fish ID page and stuck it int the boat. It helps...

I have caught many hybrids full of eggs and milt. I dont know if they are sterile but I do know that they go through the motions. I have caught many off of points and fishing creeks. I dont know why they couldnt, other fish can cross breed and produce offspring, why couldnt a hybrid reproduce?

The funny looking whitebass I'm writing about are just what this thread is all about. They look more like whitebass then hybrids but the tongue patch usually is mis-shaped and the lines above the lateral line are darker and broken like the hybrid but seldom extend to the tail.

Well on this forum we may win, lose or draw on the arguement. But I've always been told that when you argue with a game warden, you're gonna lose! So I don't. Actually in all the years I've been on the lakes, I've never had a bad incident with one.

Which makes me wonder: Has anyone on this board been stopped/approached by a patrol of any kind on Lewisville?