Different stripers.

[Ken Jones]

To: PFIC Message Board
From: Jim C
Subject: Crockett-Hybrid striper?

I caught a 17-inch striper that was twice as fat as a "normal" striper and had broken lateral lines behind the gill plates. Sure looks like a hybrid. Does anyone know if there are hybrids in the Bay system? Put up a hell of a fight too.

Posted by 2d

I didn't think there were any wipers or white bass on the west coast. Maybe, though.

Posted by erikS

Most likely a Napa River Striper. They are usually small and don't make migratory runs like the other stripers. Erik

Posted by Songslinger

Gotta go with Erik on this one. The patterns you describe are characteristic of the Napa River striped bass. Far as I know there are at least four different strains of striper in our area. In this last Berkeley Pier frenzy from May through June, we saw three of them: straight lines, ZZ Top zig zags, and freckles. I think you might be able to trace those back to the Delta, Napa River, and Petaluma River. Many of the bass were these weird short yet girthy kind.

Posted by Jim C

Thanks! That is exactly what it looked like.

Posted by Rock Hopper

Funny that all three have made it to Berkeley In fact I was there the day when we saw all three strains caught off the pier.
Röc´K HòppéR – Thë J?††? Jùnk‡

Posted by anadromous

I got one like that (really fat) at Crockett a couple of weeks ago, but failed to notice if the stripe pattern was unusual.

 

[EgoNonBaptizo]

If I recall correctly, all of the striper in California are descendants of fish from the Navesink and Shrewsbury River in New Jersey. So they started with a really small gene pool, which amplifies any mutations that were originally present in that founder population and future mutations. That probably explains why so many of our California striper have weird broken stripe patterns.

There were white bass in the Kaweah Reservoir and River and Pine Flat Reservoir on the Kings River, both of which connect to the San Joaquin in flood years via Tulare Lake. The fish in the Kaweah watershed were rotenoned out of existence before they could get into the San Joaquin and thus the Delta/Bay, but certainly I wouldn't put it past some schmuck with a bucket and a dream to have put a handful in the Delta...

As for striper variability/morphotypes in the estuary, there hasn't been any research into that, largely because fisheries research view striper only as a threat to salmonids and smelt and thus only worthy of eradication... See the failed attempt to introduce a slot limit earlier this year.

 

[Ken Jones]

EgoNonBaptizo, good post and good information. Thanks.