a striper and a hybrid?

I'm sure someone here will have the exact way of telling. All I know is to look for the broken lines on the hybrid.

The striper has several distinctive lines extending to the tail, the hybrids have distinct lines as well but are broken up.....another way to tell is stripers are skinny then hybrids, after you catch a few youll see what im talkin about.

All I know is we call them wipers/hybrids and they are larger and more likely to break line. I do believe the wiper does have broken strips.

Here you go!
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/wbass_diagrams.phtml

stripers are long and skinny--really skinny. if you catch both it will be easy to tell the difference, no confusion like the hybrid/sandbass. I've been seeing some stripers at denison dam with broken, messed up patterns.

If you get checked by the game warden, he or she will go by the tongue patch(es) - one = sand bass, two = hybrid. Some sand bass the patch takes up most of the tongue all but a little smoothness around the edges. But usually the stripes tell the story. Sand bass, only the lateral line goes all the way to the tail.

If you submit a potential recordbreaking fish, you have to send in a scale for DNA testing.

Wonder if anybody's ever gone to trial over a citation for undersized hybrid, and insisted on the DNA test?

I don't know about DNA testing for a citation but I know the Fisheries guy will have them tested to double check the funny looking whites. To further complicate the matter there is some possible cross-back breeding of whites and hybrids. It's one in a million but if every fish spawns 100,000 eggs or more then the odds are better then winning the Texas lottery!

As a hybrid gets bigger it develops a distinctive hump in front of the dorsal fin in addition to the broken lines on it's sides