HABITAT

White bass, a warm-water species, is essentially a fish of larger lakes and rivers. It frequents clear, warm to cool water [60° F. (15° C) to 70° F. (21° C)] of moderate depth where there are rock reefs, sand bars, and submerged rock jetties. It also likes the running water found below dams, locks, and the mouths of tributaries. It has been discovered that white bass seem to like the warm water flows from hydroelectric plants in spring and winter. That's good news for urbanites who don't want to go far to do a little fishing.

Distribution

In Canada this species swims in Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie (the best of the Great Lakes for anglers of the white bass), but it does not seem to have adapted to Lake Superior. It can also be found in the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, and Lake Nipissing. The St. Lawrence River on both sides of the border produces white bass, which may be the reason a few lakes in Quebec also have small populations in their waters. Lake Winnipeg is also home to white bass which are suspected of having migrated from North Dakota via the Red River. With the exception of lakes Winnipeg and Nipissing, the northern range has little or no white bass.

This species is more common to the U.S. It ranges from New York State to Minnesota and west to South Dakota. In the south, healthy populations take the swim through the Ohio-Mississippi Valley and the Gulf of Mexico

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