Wild Guide: White Bass

White Bass

Morone chrysops

Status

Native game and sport fish

Size

Total length: 9–15 inches; weight: ¼ to 1¼ pounds

Distribution

Mississippi River and its tributaries, most large Ozark reservoirs, Missouri River and its tributaries

White bass are a silvery, spiny-rayed, elongated fish with several dark horizontal streaks along the sides. They inhabit the deeper pools of streams and the open waters of lakes and reservoirs. They avoid waters that are continuously turbid and are most often found over a firm sandy or rocky bottom. They are most active at dawn and dusk when they feed on fish, small crustaceans, and aquatic insects.

Life Cycle

White bass are early spring spawners. Males enter tributaries in March and remain until the middle or latter part of April. They become mature and move to spawning grounds about a month before the females. Spawning occurs in midwater or near the surface, over a gravelly or rocky bottom, often in a current, and without preparation of a nest. After fertilization, the eggs settle to the bottom, where they become attached to rocks and hatch in about two days. A single large female may produce nearly a million eggs in one spawning season. Spawning is completed over a period of five to 10 days. White bass grow rapidly, and individuals can live about 4 years.