Thread: white bass & white perch

pete with the above shown white bass right after he caught it on 12/07/05

Originally Posted by rango

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

I think all three of these are white bass. White perch do not have a lateral line down their side.

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.