White Bass (Morone chrysops)

THE FISH

Shape, Size, and Color

It's not too well known that there's a fish swimming our waters under the name of white bass. Some of you may know it under one of its tagged names: silver bass, white lake bass, and, for the bilingual, bar blanc. There are just three North American freshwater bass species: the striped bass, the white bass, and the white perch.

Shape, Size, and Color

The white bass can reach a length of over 18 inches, but its average is 11 to 13. Average weight in Ontario waters varies from three-quarters of a pound to two pounds. The record appears to be five pounds, four ounces. The white bass has a deep, elliptical body which is marked with up to a dozen dusky, more or less uninterrupted, horizontal stripes on a silvery background. Colors run from black to silvery green on the back into silvery white on the sides. The belly varies from a golden tint to off-white. The mouth has a slightly protruding lower jaw. One way to distinguish this fish from some sunfish species is by the dorsal fins. Unlike the others, which have un-separated fins, the white bass has two quite prominent dorsal fins.

The white bass is often confused with its cousin, the white perch. Both fish have a little flap of skin, or membrane, in the first dorsal fin area, but in the white bass this membrane is attached to the back of the fish, whereas in the white perch, it's attached to the front edge of the second dorsal fin. The white perch has a distinctly purple under-jaw, but it's pure white in the white bass. The white perch is basically an anadromous fish of the eastern seaboard; the white bass is an inland fish.

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