4 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Two fresh-water Serranids bear a superficial resemblance to the striped bass. 

 Morone interrupta, the yellow bass of the Mississippi Valley, also has seven longitudinal 

 dark stripes, but is immediately distinguished by its slight connection of the dorsals, 

 greater depth of tbe body (2.7 in standard length), lesser number of scales in the 

 lateral line (50-54), lack of teeth on tbe base of tongue, and its robust^ spines of the 

 dorsal and anal, as well as the more numerous spines of the first dorsal (X). Lepibema 

 chrysops, the white bass of the Great Lakes region and Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, 

 also has a number of dark longitudinal narrow stripes. Here the dorsals are separate 

 as in the striped bass, but this species differs in having only a single patch of teeth 

 on the base of the tongue, and in having a much deeper body (over one-third of the 

 length) that is more compressed. 



SIZE AND RANGE OF THE STRIPED BASS 



The striped bass most commonly taken at present by commercial and sport fisher- 

 men on the Atlantic coast vary in size from less than 1 pound to about 10 pounds in 

 weight. Individuals up to 25-30 pounds, however, are by no means rare, and not 

 infrequently striped bass up to 50-60 pounds are caught, although, judging from 

 old records, these larger fish are not as abundant as they have been in the past. Bass 

 above 60 pounds are now decidedly rare. The largest striped bass taken in recent 

 years was the 65-pounder caught on rod and line in Rhode Island in October 1936 

 and one weighing 73 pounds was taken on rod and line in Vineyard Sound, Mass., 

 in 1913 (Walford, 1937). Authentic records show that a striped bass weighing 112 

 pounds was taken at Orleans, Mass., many years ago (Bigelow and Welsh, 1925), 

 and Smith (1907) reports several weighing 125 pounds caught in a seine near Edenton, 

 N. C, in 1891. 



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Figure 1.— The striped bass (Roccus saxatilis). 



The striped bass has a range on the Atlantic coast of North America, where it is 

 indigenous, from Florida to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and is most common from North 

 Carolina to Massachusetts. Jordan and Evermann (1905) state that its southern 

 limit is the Escambia River in western Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico. Jordan 

 (1929), however, states that the striped bass exists as far west as Louisiana. Bean 

 (1884) records the striped bass from the Tangipahoa River, near Osyka, Miss., and 

 this river also flows through Louisiana. Gowanloch (1933) also mentions the striped 

 bass in his "Fishes and fishing in Louisiana." 



The striped bass was introduced on the Pacific coast where its present center of 

 abundance is the San Francisco Bay region (Scofield, 1931), and the extreme limits 

 of its distribution are Los Angeles County, Calif., and the Columbia River (Walford, 

 loc. cit.). Walford also states: "There is an indigenous population of bass at Coos 

 Bay, Oreg., about 400 miles north of San Francisco." 



