Thread: White Bass or WHite Perch

do you have any pics of your fish? we catch them both in lake wateree and if you have both side by side its not to hard to see difference, but just one fish can get tricky. a fresh white bass's stripes are very solid, but fade as they die and there tongue has a rough patch on it. Also if you pull the first dorsal fin and if the second fin also pulls up its a perch. the d1 and d2 are connected on a perch and not on a white bass.

I have wondered the same Beagler. We use to catch tons of white bass at Greenwood but now all you hear about are perch. I have not caught a white bass in a long time, I think!

After I caught I was looking at it, it looked identical, But I remembered reading if the pull the spiney dorsel fin up and the soft one behind stays flat it's a White Bass. This I did and the fin behind it stayed flat, If it is a Perch both dorsel fins will come up when you pull the spiney one up.
The fish I caught was definetly a white bass.

If it would have been small, I would have called it a Perch and let it at that.

We used to catch a limit of white bass almost anytime in the spring behind the old dam at Wateree. I have only seen one white bass in the last five or six years taken from Wateree. I was fishing with Don Drose at Santee probably 20-25 years ago. We would pull up to the old humps in Wyboo Creek and drop rigs with 5-6 small hooks baited with redworms to the bottom and catch what Don called "Virginia Perch". We used them for striper and catfish bait. This was the first time I had ever heard of what I now know to be white perch. How they started in Santee I don't think anyone will ever know. But as far as I know, that's the first place they were caught in South Carolina. I read that they came from the Chesapeake area of Virginia, so I guess someone brought them to Santee to use as bait and now they are taking over the whole state.

found this article that some may find interesting


SCFishingReport.com • View topic - White Perch Fishing with Captain Rodger Taylor

Good article

That is a good article fishinRod. Appreciate it. I agree with one thing he said....white perch are some fine eating. I used to throw them back a few years ago. Now I take them home for supper.