Some Basics of Hybrid Striped Bass

Hybrid striped bass are a popular game fish. They give a good fight which fishermen enjoy. They are also good eating. Frequently, when striped bass is listed on a menu, it may be hybrid striped bass, as the fish are raised commercially for restaurants. They were first developed in the 1960's and were accepted by the 1980's. They were used to help replace decreasing trout populations. Otherwise known as Sunshine bass, Cherokee bass, and wipers, hybrid striped bass are best known for the broken striped on their sides.

They were initially developed from white bass and striped bass, the eggs being from the white bass and the sperm from the striped. Unlike other hybrids, wipers can reproduce. This is unusual in nature. Usually a hybrid cannot reproduce. A mule is an example of this. A mule is a cross from a donkey and a horse. Hybrid vegetables are other examples. You cannot save the seeds from hybrid vegetable. You have to buy new ones each year for the garden.

Hybrid striped bass or wipers live in ponds and streams, also lakes and large reservoirs. They like the open waters. They can hide among rocks and in downed trees or limbs. Their food are sunfish, minnows, crappie, and chad. They feed on the surface of the water. This makes it easier for fishermen to see them and catch them. They are rarely found among the shallow weeds of a lake. Sometimes when wipers are feeding on shad in the fall, the fisherman go out to fish the wipers.

The size of the fish is from two to five or ten pounds, so it is a nice size for catching and eating. The largest one on record ever caught was slightly over 27 pounds. They are able to survive harsher conditions than their parents, being more tolerant of either warm water or low oxygen conditions. They like open areas of lakes, and are rarely found in shallow, dense weed. The broken stripes on the side of the fish make them distinguishable from other bass.