Hybrid striped bass culture began in the southeastern U.S. in the late 1980s and has rapidly developed into a major aquaculture industry. Almost every state in the southern region has hybrid striped bass producers, but most of the production is in Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. In 1997, the total regional production of hybrid striped bass was an estimated 5 million pounds, about 50% of total U.S. production, with a farm-gate value of approximately $12.5 million. The industry has been expanding at a rate of 10-15% per year for the past five years.


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

Most farm-raised hybrid striped bass are made in the hatchery by fertilizing female white bass (Morone chrysops) eggs with sperm from male striped bass (Morone saxatilis). This cross produces a fish which is sometimes called a sunshine bass or reciprocal cross hybrid striped bass. The hybrid is distinguishable from one of its parents, the striped bass, by the broken horizontal lines that run along the sides of its body. Hybridization of the white bass and the striped bass produces a fish with a greater tolerance to extremes in temperature and dissolved oxygen than either of its parents and is thus better suited for pond culture.


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

The majority of hybrid striped bass producers in the southern region raise their fish in freshwater ponds. Most producers are involved with the growout phase of production and purchase their fry or fingerlings from hatcheries. At 18 to 24 month of age (1 - 2 lb.), marketable hybrid striped bass are harvested by seine and immediately packed whole on ice for shipment to market. No additional processing is needed until the fish reach the consumer.


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

Hybrid striped bass is a hybrid of the striped bass, Morone saxatilis, crossed with any other of the Moronid species. The main species crossed with the striped bass is the white bass, Morone chrysops. The striped bass is anadromous (meaning it lives in saltwater and breeds in freshwater) native to the East Coast of the United States. White bass is a freshwater fish native to the Mississippi River Basin. The two species were first crossed in 1965 as a cross between a female striped bass and a male white bass to create what is called a palmetto bass (Robbins et al. 1991). The reciprocal cross, female white bass and male striped bass, or sunshine bass (Robbins et al. 1991) is what is most commonly used in commercial culture. Culturing the hybrid striped bass rather than culturing striped bass gives beneficial characteristics of both species, including that they grow faster, are easier to train to a pelleted feed, and are more disease resistant (Kohler 2004). Hybrid striped bass have been stocked in lakes throughout the United States in waters having the appropriate water quality (Table 1) to support hybrid striped bass for recreational fishing (Hodson 1989).


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

"Wiper" mania has swept across the United States in less than four decades. The wiper, or hybrid striped bass, is a cross between a white bass and a striped bass. Biologists interested in the best qualities of both fish imagined a cross that might produce a fish that would feed on the over abundance of shad in the major reservoirs which quickly grew too large for white bass to consume.
The interest came about as a result of seafaring striped bass, which enter fresh water to spawn, being trapped behind the Cooper and Kerr Reservoir dams when they closed 45 years ago. To the amazement of anglers and biologists alike, stripers adapted to their new environment.
"The result of the white bass-striper cross was a fish that could both utilize the targeted shad populations and provide a great sport fish for anglers," said Trish Yasger, a fisheries management biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation.


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

Interesting read. Black bass are structure oriented fish and hybrids are open water fish. Your information about the fish learning process to avoid capture is like comparing apples and oranges. I enjoyed your information and hope that others on the forum will appreciate your effort to better understand our fishery.