Hybrid striped bass

What a hybrid is

South Carolina DNR developed the cross in the mid-1960s at its Dennis Wildlife Center in Moncks Corner, using striped bass females and white bass males, looking for a fish that would survive stocking at a small size better than young stripers. Oklahoma and Iowa describe the same cross. Mississippi's agency describes the reverse cross, a white bass female with a striped bass male, so both combinations are in use. The fish has the arched back and deep body of a white bass and the darker, bolder stripes of a striper, and its lines are usually broken. Mississippi says hybrids tolerate warm water better than stripers, and Oklahoma calls them a put, grow and take fish for lakes with plenty of shad but poor striped bass habitat.

Growth and stocking

Oklahoma reports hybrids reaching six or seven pounds by age three and 18 to 20 pounds by eight or nine; Mississippi gives 5 to 10 pounds as usual, and Iowa says they seldom pass 10 pounds even though its state record is 19 pounds 10 ounces from Saylorville Reservoir. Georgia's record is 25 pounds 8 ounces from Lake Chatuge. Iowa first stocked them in 1981 at Saylorville to control gizzard shad, Oklahoma began at Sooner Lake in 1977, and in South Carolina the main fisheries are lakes Hartwell and Thurmond on the Savannah River. Both sexes mature, and hybrids run upstream with spawning stripers and white bass, but Oklahoma has not observed natural reproduction and South Carolina calls it questionable, so populations depend on stocking.

The mistakes that cost fish

Fishing structure without bait: Iowa DNR's first step is to find the shad, around timber, creek channels, current seams and windblown shores with a mud line. Fishing the wrong hours in summer: Iowa finds the best summer action at sunrise and sunset or on cloudy days. And mislabeling the catch: where stripers, hybrids and white bass share a lake, limits often differ by species, so learn the tongue-tooth and stripe differences before keeping fish.

Tackle setups

Playbook by water temperature

Month by month

Best waters for hybrid striped bass

80 waters we report on where this species is one of the main fish, each with a daily report.

Common questions