Photo by Daryl Bauer.

The aggressive fish known variously as "hybrid bass," "hybrid striped bass" or "wipers" result from crossbreeding white and striped bass. Hybrids combine some of the best traits of both parents -- the white bass' tolerance of warmer water, the stripers' larger size -- but are short-lived, and don't ever really become giants.

On the other hand, the cross does produce the meanest fish in Alabama.

Our state record, caught below the Lewis Smith dam in 1996 by Chelsea's E. H. Hodges, weighed 25 pounds, 15 ounces. The world-record weight is just 27 pounds, 5 ounces.

The first successful hybridization of white and striped bass occurred in 1965 in South Carolina. This original cross, created from the egg of a striped bass, is called a "palmetto bass," and is the type of hybrid produced and stocked by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. (Hybrids produced from the egg of a white bass are referred to as "sunshine bass.")

According to the DCNR's assistant chief of fisheries Nick Nichols, our state fish hatchery at Marion chooses to produce palmetto bass for a number of reasons. "The striped bass has a much bigger egg and subsequently has a much larger hatch larvae than the white bass," he explained. "They are a little easier to raise, and we can actually hold them for about a week after they start feeding before stocking them in our rearing ponds" -- thus providing a great deal more working flexibility than does the reciprocal cross, which, using a white-bass egg, produces a really tiny fish. "We are fortunate with our program in that we have good sources of female striped bass and can make the original cross."

Importing fish from other states, Alabama began stocking hybrids in the mid-1970s; a few years later, the state started producing fry at the Marion hatchery, and since 1975 has stocked 26,580,000 hybrids. (To put that into perspective: Alabama stocked a little more than 16.5 million striped bass in the same period.)

WHY STOCK HYBRIDS?
"Both striped and hybrid bass provide our anglers with other species to target with great trophy potential, especially with striped bass," Nichols said. "Additionally, both species feed almost exclusively on shad. Contrary to what many believe, they don't feed much on other species of fish. Both species, especially the bigger fish, can feed on large gizzard shad, which are not useable by our other sportfish."

Nichols pointed out that biologists can't establish a striped bass fishery in waters lacking thermal refuge areas. But as hybrids can tolerate warmer water, it's usually possible to create a hybrid fishery in those reservoirs.