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White bass are congregating around the inlets, go catch 25 and clean them for three hours like me. My hands still smell like fish...
Caught them at the Provo River inlet on my specially modified CD5 Rainbow Rapala, the modification being a red treble hook on the front instead of the original, which broke. Ever since I put the red hook on I've been asked "Really?" quite a few times when I've been catching and others aren't. Went through my silver Kastmaster, Jake's Lure, white curly tail grub, couple Gulp! minnows, spinners and a few small maribou jigs with the only other bites besides the Rapala being on a Mepps spinner with a red treble hook, gold blade and black body with yellow dots. Switched back to the Rapala and started stacking fish again.
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[#0000FF]Nice work. Did you find many females with eggs in the bunch you filleted?
DWR is trying to secure some spawning females for their annual crossing of white bass and stripers to create a grundle of wipers for this year's planting. So anybody who has located some females please let us know where you found them. Since the big white bass decline a couple of years ago there seems to be a disproportionate ratio of males to females and the females are much harder for them to obtain.
I will probably be making a post early next week to solicit angler help at a designated spot to help catch some female white bass.
Thanks.
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Literally zero females that I could detect. They all had milt sacs, unless I missed something.
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Interesting dilemma. I guess the male White Bass, female Striped Bass combo doesn't work the same?
humpy
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Actually it works better. Larger ova, larger fry, easier to feed. I'm guessing that it is easier to keep male Stripers ready for the White Bass eggs.
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[#0000FF]As I understand it, you can get a successful cross either way. But the young produced are not as healthy by using the male white bass. One of those silly genetics things.
Funny, isn't it, how the kids produced by some parents turn out better than those produced by others? Just like humans.
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[quote Fishrmn]Actually it works better. Larger ova, larger fry, easier to feed. I'm guessing that it is easier to keep male Stripers ready for the White Bass eggs. [#8000ff][/#8000ff][/quote]
[#0000FF]I have checked several websites for info on the matter. Seems to be differing opinions. I suspect that in Utah the process is dictated by trying to coordinate having viable eggs/milt from both species at the same time...and having to transport the white bass from Utah Lake down to the hatchery at Powell.
Here's what Wikipedia had to say about it.
[/#0000FF]"Produced in hatcheries, the most common hybridization is the female striped bass Morone saxatilis and the male white bass M. chrysops. This is due to the high number of eggs produced by the female striped bass. This hybrid cross typically produces a faster-growing offspring which attains larger size. The female striped bass is injected with human gonadotropin which stimulates her to lay. Usually, around a dozen male white bass are in the tank when the spawn occurs. Once the eggs are fertilized, the brood fish are removed and the eggs must stay adrift in artificial current for about 48 hours to hatch. Natural hybridization has been occurring for thousands of years between the species, but it is usually the reverse cross which would be male M. saxatilis x female M. chrysops, since the white bass eggs do not require the same degree of flotation to hatch."
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So it would be correct to call Wipers Sunshine Bass.
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Or Palmetto Bass. Depending on which parent species provided the eggs. If The DWR is using White Bass eggs then they would be Sunshine Bass. I'm pretty sure that they've done it the other way 'round in the past. It was easier to have male White Bass hanging around waiting for the honeymoon instead of having to keep Stripers waiting for their big chance. Must have found a way to keep some Stripers around as brood stock.
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My guess is it has to do with availability of Striper eggs vs WB eggs. Stripers will not be ripe till later in May/June, while the WB are getting ready now. Male Stripers can be injected with hormones to produce milt pretty much anytime, which makes the WB egg/Striper milt combo up first. I would also suspect that when the Striper eggs are available, they will do the Striper egg/WB milt combo at that time. More wipers for everyone !! Yea Ha !!! Wish I could be there on Wednesday !! Get em good you guys!!
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