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awhile back there was a lot of discussion on the differences tween white bass and white perch. on a recent trip with me to wateree pete caught a white bass and a white perch, almost back to back so we thought it would be neat to line em up so folks could see the difference. looking at the photo, its easy to see how they can be mistaken for each other. the white bass is in the center flanked by a white perch at the top and at the bottom
pete with the above shown white bass right after he caught it on 12/07/05
I think all three of these are white bass. White perch do not have a lateral line down their side.Quote:
Originally Posted by rango
the difference is clear.......the white perch has one solid line running down its side, whereas the bass has 3 or 4 lines running down....look harder.
It still all looks the same to me :) Especially filleted and swimming in grease.
I think the clue is that Rango and Pete caught these in minutes of each other. The official description of a white perch is attached. Note all silver with no lines...White perch and white bass do not usually inhabit the same water layers. Bass tend to be middle layer up to surface whereas the perch is deeper and feeds near the bottom. They catch the same, hardy fighters and eat the same. Still I am no marine biologist.
WHITE PERCH
click image to enlarge
COMMON NAMES: White perch, Silver perch, Gray perch, Blue nose perch
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Morone americana
IDENTIFICATION: The white perch is a deep bodied fish that looks very similar to the white bass. The main difference is that the white perch is all silver and does not have dark lines running the length of the body.
the lateral lines on the smaller ones might not be as pronounced because of their size. but, it is hard to tell. i wonder if the taste would be the same between the three dusted in cornmeal and deepfried. mmmmm
to me the fin on the butt side and the end dorsal are shaped like a triangle which matches up to the hybrid example. the white bass fins from the example in the same spot has a more rounded shape. just my observation. it appears based on the examples i found that all three are hybrids.
edited my original text because i looked up hybrid pictures on the internet and they have larger mouths and are bigger than the one pete is holding so i don't know either way now. i agree with rhino. i guess it depends on time of year and what they have been eating. color and fin shape and all can change. also, the lateral lines could be more pronounced on some than others. i like the ending of rhino's post....as long as they pull, i'll pull back...amen.
fried they are good any way about it.
Sometimes the only way to tell the difference in a species of fish is to count the dorsal-fin spines. Color can change: lateral lines can change; even eye color can change. (Just my 2 cents worth.) I caught a white bass out of Wateree several years ago during the summer that was bright yellow: almost electric looking. I was told by several people that it waqs this and that, so I took it to Columbia and had the fisheries biologist look at it. It was a white bass only yellow. Anyway...as long as they pull, I'll pull back!
At least we know the middle one is definitely a white bass :)
The perch seems to be more deep bodied wth more of an underslung mouth. Hard to tell with the pic. My guess would be white perch since there are no stripes.
i was up close and personal with the big fish in the center and the top and bottom fish. I held em, i netted em, i rubbed em, i smelled em, poked and prodded em and photographed em and the center fish is a white bass and the top and bottom fish are white perch...what i dint do was count any stickers in their fins.. dats my story and im sticking to it... :)
There are yellow bass also not sure if they are in this state but they exist. I hope to find something tomorrow doesn't matter to me if they're white perch, white bass or striper as long as they run like they stole something.
Ive broadened the quest for knowledge. i posted the same photo on the main and ask the guys over there what their opinions was on these three fish. that should generate some interesting results
Howdy Rango; threw you a life ring on the main board about your fish. tarfu
thanks tarfu. i checked that page out and saved it for future reference if needed. looks like them boys on the main page has as many different opinions as we do here in the carolinas on the id of the fish. :). if these three fish was all the same size i could understand the problem but the middle fish was much larger. we dint measure it so i used a known reference which was the left side of the right metal seat base to the left side of the left seat base and it measured 14 & 3/4 inches and it looked like the center fish was about a inch wider than this distance making it 15 & 3/4 inches long. the two smaller fish was BIG fish compared to the size normally caught while we are nightstalkin for crappie. all three of these fish was caught using big bass minnows drifting for striper with 3/0 circle hooks. occasionally well catch big white perch fishing like this and without exception they are all large compared to normal white perch we catch. when pete brought this fish in, we both at first thought it was a HUGE white perch and was amazed at its size. closer examination of this fish led us to beleive it was a white bass, a fish we seldom catch at wateree anymore. we used to catch white bass on a regular basis at our home lake trolling or nightstalking but its been three or four years since weve caught one. now we catch a lot of white perch instead. for me the biggest clue the center fish was a white bass was its size. and the broken lines above and below the lateral line. the two smaller fish has no hint of the broken lines present. i suspect a lot of fish caught and claimed as white bass are actually white perch. white bass just dont show up in our catches like they used to. why, i dont know but they dont. i dont know what sc's record white perch measures but im sure if it measured 15 & 3/4 inches it would be somekind of record and it wouldnt have the broken lines on its side like the white bass has.Quote:
Originally Posted by tarfu