Hybrid Striped Bass

World record
Hybrid Striped Bass
27 pounds, 5 ounces
Caught out of
Greers Ferry Lake
in Arkansas

Hybrid striped bass production is one of the fastest growing aquaculture enterprises in the United States.
Striped Bass Growers Association.
Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center.
Keo Fish Farm in Arkansas is the largest producer of hybrid striped bass fry and fingerlings in the world.

Hybrid Striped Bass are raised by the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission by using the sperm of white bass to fertilize the eggs of a female striped bass.

The hybrid has horizontal stripes, often broken. The first horizontal stripe below the lateral line is distinct and complete to the tail. It has a deep body .

The Arkansas Game & Fish Commission has stocked hybrids in select Arkansas waters to provide anglers with trophy-sized gamefish and to introduce a predator that could feed on large gizzard shad.

Adult gizzard shad in our reservoirs are too large to be eaten by most other sportfish, with the exception of large predators such as a few catfish and Striped Bass.

The Hybrid Striped Bass can withstand greater temperature extremes and lower dissolved oxygen than either of its parents making it easier to raise in some lakes, reservoirs and Farm Ponds

In Arkansas, Hybrid Striped Bass commonly reach 8 to 10 pounds. Fish of 15 or 16 pounds show up often. 20+ pound have been caught in Degray and Greers Ferry.

The Tongue Test
The back of the tongue of a Hybrid Striped Bass
has one distinct tooth patch
or two close patches very close together.

A white bass tongue
has a heart-shaped tooth patch.

The back of the tongue of a striped bass
has two distinct parallel tooth patches

Hybrid striped bass have gained widespread acceptance as a sport fish, particularly in the large reservoirs of the southeast U.S., Striped bass and hybrid striped bass, in particular, are grown in the United States in fish ponds as food fish.

Hybrid striped bass generally refers to a cross between eggs from a female striped bass (Morone saxatilis)
and sperm from the male white bass (M. chrysops).

This cross, referred to as the “original cross,” was first produced in South Carolina in the mid1960s.
The common name of this cross is the Palmetto Bass.

The cross using white bass female eggs and striped bass male sperm is also produced.
The common name of this cross is the Sunshine Bass.

Hybrid Striped Bass Physical characteristics