both sandies

Hybrids and whites are VERY easy to tell apart.

Hybrids have two VERY distinct tooth patches on the center of their tongue. Look in the mouth of a hybrid, and you'll see two tooth patches right next to each other, with a very distinct "line" between them.

Look in the mouth of a white bass, and you'll see only a single tooth patch.

If you look close enough you will see me standing next to the center fish....

Seriuosly though, the center hybrid went 24 1/2" and nearly 7 lbs!! Nice n fat and they're only going to get fatter

Thanks!

FUZ - both are sandbass!

Please correct me if I am wrong.
A few months ago a young man, I think his name was Danny, caught what everyone on here thought to be a record sandy. He and his Father went through all the proper channels with the TPWD and if I remember correctly, they ruled it a hybrid, even though it only had one tooth patch. After that happened we adopted the "when in doubt, throw it out" rule. We have had a few times when we were not sure, used to go by the tooth patches just by sticking your finger in the fishes mouth. After that ruling by the TPWD on the record sandy, now we are not so sure about how the warden is going to handle it when he approches you. I bet the thread is searchable because it was long and interesting. This topic comes up quite often and there is alot of info available on this site about it.

The link below seems to be pretty informitive.

www.huntstats.com/wbiguides.html

Thats funny to hear from a guy that fishes for carp

I've fished with Justin (starless) for whites many times..either at grapevine or LL tailrace. He fishes for anything that bites!!!

I hear ya--I was just giving him a hard time--don't see him post on here much. If you ask Greg--I'm a yellow bass fisherman

I thought I was the only one

What is bad is that at Mondos BB tournament I couldn't even win the YB pot.

haha! I heard you were the Yellow bass KING! thats funny cause I can't get a yellow bass to save my life!

dang the internet...without facial expressions its hard to tell if you're joking...I was just thinking that its out of character for ya Jason, you're a pretty joking guy.

If the tongue patches really are hard to see for you which I can understand.

You can tell by the body shape too, Hybrids have the arch in their backs further back on the body. Whites the hunch is more pronounced and more forward.

Then there are the stripes like others have mentioned, I have more difficulty with the stripes myself.

Next time I catch a keeper Hybrid, I'll try to get a picture of it next to a white. I don't seem to catch too many hybrids but they do make it to the dinner table once or twice a month...

Personally, I'd just go with the 18" rule anyway, Whites don't seem to have much meat in the fillets, so throwing them back isn't much of a loss. Hybrids will give you nice fillets and one fish will feed two people.....

Here's a pretty good pic of the color difference. Potlicked this from a thread on here. I know coloration differs from lake to lake but color is how I tell on Belton.