Thread: White Bass and Crappie

This is a good definition of them. Other fish, like White Crappie, are sometimes called white perch but this is the true species. Seems like every fish has dozen local names given to it.

White perch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by SeaRay

This is a good definition of them. Other fish, like White Crappie, are sometimes called white perch but this is the true species. Seems like every fish has dozen local names given to it.

White perch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As SeaRay pointed out, some people call white crappie white perch. Similar to people calling most sunfish brim. This is why there are scientific names. There are too many common names for the same fish. White perch are related to white bass, yellow bass, and striped bass. These fish are in the Morone family. These fish are know as temperate bass. Most people in Arkansas have not heard about white perch yet, because they haven't caught one and they aren't abundant enough to be a problem (yet).

At lake Martin, Alabama, one of the locals told me that there were huge schools of white and hybrid bass that roamed the lake. Once they visited a cove, they would eat all the bait fish out and leave no food for the other fish and the cove would become a place with no fish. We found these on the sonar and were catching one on every cast until we got stormed out. The next day, we thought we could go back to the same place and do it again, but the water was completely dead.

Several years ago I had never heard of them. Then we started catching one here and there. For a while I thought they were white bass. The small ones look a lot alike.
Now we got 10 million of them and virtually no white bass. I can't remember the last time I caught a white bass. The guys here have discovered they are excellent catfish bait. That is the small ones, the larger ones, 1/2 lb. and up to 2 lbs. are good to eat if filleted and skinned.

Boy, RCC,it is hard to tell if they are white bass or white perch when you compare them to my live well shot on first page. One good way is to lift the dorsal fin. If both come up when you lift one, it is a white perch. Apparently they fins are joined on the perch and not the bass. Least that is what one of our DNR biologists told me.
We have caught Stipers mixed in with perch schools, but no white bass. Hope they don't wipe out y'alls White Bass like they did ours. Is there a limit on white perch in your state??

Originally Posted by SeaRay

That is the small ones, the larger ones, 1/2 lb. and up to 2 lbs. are good to eat if filleted and skinned.

Do they have red flesh you have to trim off the filet, like white bass, hybrids, and stripers?

http://libinfo.uark.edu/aas/issues/2007v61/v61a20.pdf

Here a scientific journal that talks about the first documented occurrence in Arkansas.

Thanks SeaRay and D10, like you said, I haven't seen or caught one yet.