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