Name/Relations || Range/Sizes || Habitat & Habits ||  Notes

	Note: No tooth patch on tongue, 1st stripe below lateral line complete, stripes black and distinct, top olive to brownish green fading to drab gold then white on belly. Dorsal fin lobes connected.

Common Name:  Yellow Bass
Other Common Names:   Golden bass, brassy bass, striped bass
Scientific name:  Morone mississippiensis
Family:  Percichthyidae Temporate Basses
Related Species:  White Bass, White Perch, Striped Bass, Hybrid Wiper
 

Sizes:  Up to 1.5 lbs, common 4"-9" (1/4lb-3/4 lb)

Habitat:  Sloughs and slower, turbid sections of larger rivers and streams, also in moderate to large lakes, often over sand, silt, and mud.

Spawning Habits:  Begins when water hits 60 F in spring.  Schools of fish head into smaller streams or go to shallow gravelly shoals in lakes, then males and females pair off and spawn.  Eggs float freely or sink into gravel.

Feeding Habits:  More of a small pack feeder than a schooler, it can be found feeding in small schools over mud and silt or in the backwaters of sloughs and lakes looking for small insects, nymphs, crayfish, and worms, though larger yellow bass will sometimes school with white bass and persue minnows.  Very opportunistic but prefers a lively meal.  Also feeds in warmer, more turbid, waters than the white bass, and can be caught spring, summer, and fall.

Notes:  Often confused with the White bass, the yellow bass prefers warmer, slower, shallower water and can be more omnivorous.  Often caught in rivers when fishing for sunfishes, it will readily take a worm, small minnow, small crayfish, or cricket.  Often also caught by anglers fishing for crappie or smaller black basses and will inhabit many of the same areas.  Will readily take small jigs, spinners, and flies if fished slowly (as in for bluegill or crappie).  Also, sometimes will hang out with small freshwater drums.