Temperate Bass' Profile

             There certainly are a lot of great fish in Kansas, and the temperate bass are no exception. The temperate bass in Kansas include white bass, striped bass, wiper, and white perch.

             The first one I will list is the white bass. These fish are common in the eastern half of the state. They live very active lifestyles, forming large schools and targeting baitfish in open water. They don't live very long and usually mature in only two or three years. Because of these factors, the white bass doesn't grow very large. The state record white bass (according to the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks) weighed 5.67 pounds and was 20 3/8 inches, but they rarely grow more than two pounds and 15 inches. They are my personal favorite species to catch as they put up a truly relentless fight, even if they are out of the water (and I am making a bare-handed attempt to get the hook out). Tuttle Creek has a small population of large white bass and some may even be of record size.

            The second species is the striped bass otherwise known as the striper. It is an anadromous fish, meaning that it live in saltwater but spawns in rivers. They are therefore capable of living in freshwater. Striper are much larger than white bass because of their long life span (sometimes 30 years) and the steady source of food found in the ocean. The fish that live in the ocean are capable of growing up to 80 pounds but the landlocked fish only reach about 60 pounds at the very most. The striped bass was once introduced into Kansas waters via stocking to produce a new angling experience as well as to provide a new apex predator. The only way to do this is to keep live striper at the hatcheries year-round, as there are no wild striper to be found in Kansas. This proves to be a very costly endeavor as striper are voracious predators that require live shad to thrive and produce healthy offspring. The state decided to experiment with hybridizing the striper to keep the cost down, and thus was born the wiper.


           Wiper are the hybrid product of male white bass and female striper. Wiper share many qualities with both striper and white bass, including their action-packed way of living along with agressive tendencies. They are therefore a primary target for many anglers. Because the striper and white bass are so similar, it is very hard to tell the difference between them and their hybrid counterparts. In fact it is hopeless unless you know exactly what to look for or the fish have started getting very large. The primary method recommended for telling the difference between wiper and white bass is to check the tongue tooth-patches. The white bass always has one patch while the wiper has two (in theory). The wiper are most of what I catch in places like Tuttle Creek and Rocky Ford. They are much like the white bass in the way they fight except that they can be much larger. The state record is 25lbs and 33 1/2 inches, but they realistically reach 3 pounds on average. They are well known for the feeding frenzies that they cause when they chase a school of shad to the surface and subsequently tear into it, sometimes getting the gulls to join in.


         The final fish is the white perch. It is not of much relevance in this part of Kansas but it is an invasive species that is blamed for the reduction of the population of sportfish like the white bass. It is easier to tell apart from the rest of the fish in this profile because it lacks the horizontal stripes that are common to all of the others. The white perch has no real value since it is so small and doesn't have particularly good meat. If one ever catches a white perch (in Kansas) they should not release it and they should contact the local Wildlife and Parks Department office and report their catch.

   
        To recap. The white bass is a native sportfish that is fairly popular and easy to catch. The striper was introduced but is expensive to maintain and doesn't naturally reproduce in Kansas waters. The wiper is a hybrid between the white and striped basses, and shares both of their qualities.

Here is a link to the ID gallery at the KDWPT website. If you click this and click on the poster for "Temperate bass family" it will show you how to identify them.
www.kdwpt.state.ks.us/news/Fishing/Fish-ID-Gallery