A little sunshine

[Florida Cracker2]

Every now and then I catch one of these. Always by fishing on bottom with leftover shrimp from the previous saltwater trip. They are very sensitive and die very quickly. You have to get them unhooked and back into the water fast. All of them I have caught have been about the same size. Supposed to also hit lures, but not mine.  

[TnRiver46]

Cool deal! I forgot y'all had those down there

[Fishing_FF]

Nice!

 

Clear Lake in Orlando is stocked with hybrid sunshines. Shrimp seems to the best bait for them, but I’ve caught a few on crankbaits and spinnerbaits. 

[Bluebasser86]

I forget how sunshine bass are different from our wipers/hybrids, but there must be a big difference because wipers are super aggressive and attack about anything when the mood strikes them. They look very similar though.

[Florida Cracker2]

They are the wipers I believe. A hybrid of white and striped bass.

[BASS302]

@Florida Cracker2,

I didn't know what a sunshine bass was so I Googled it.

This is what it said on Wikipedia:

A hybrid striped bass, also known as a wiper or whiterock bass, is a hybrid between the striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and the white bass (M. chrysops). Hybrid striped bass are produced two different ways. Some of these fish are produced by fertilizing eggs from white bass with sperm from striped bass; the resulting fish are also called "sunshine bass" or "Cherokee bass". Others are produced by fertilizing eggs from striped bass with sperm from white bass; the resulting fish is called a "palmetto bass".

 

I learn a bunch of stuff reading through these BR forums.  Thanks.

 

 

 

[N Florida Mike]

I've caught some of those , but not recently.

They love dead squid or shrimp. I'm sure they bite lures , but I never caught one that way.

[J._Bricker]

They do hit do hit lures FC2, but can pretty much strip bait off the hook seemingly before it hits bottom. This little striper was my first fish of 2018, and man was I hoping it was a green fish after it initial strike...

[soflabasser]

Nice sunshine bass. They are one of my favorite freshwater fish to catch in South Florida.

[Florida Cracker2]

I learned after the first couple I caught to get them unhooked and back into the water fast or they die. A LM bass, I can walk up to the house with one, get a picture, and walk back and put it back in the water and it will swim away no worse for wear.

I never caught a striped or white bass...are they also that delicate, or is this an effect of cross breeding?

[soflabasser]

I have had a different experience from you and found that sunshine bass are a extremely hardy fish, just like a striped bass and white bass, which I have caught as well in my vacations up north. I tend to catch my sunshine bass in the South Florida ''winters'' when they are at their strongest and most likely to bite, they tend to not do so well in the summer heat in South Florida. So far I have caught several sunshine bass over 20 inches, with a couple of them over 24 inches. They don't get much bigger than that in South Florida, at least from what I have seen in photos down here. Sunshine bass get much bigger in Northern Florida and they are places up there where they catch 24-26 inch sunshine bass often, since sunshine bass are a temperate bass and grow better in the cool waters of Northern Florida. Striped bass, sunshine bass, and white bass are much stronger pound for pound than a largemouth bass of equal size, and they are almost as strong as a peacock bass which is probably in my top 5 favorite freshwater fish to catch so far. 

[Florida Cracker2]

I would love to catch a Peacock bass. They have them in Palm Beach which is due east of me. I would think if they thrive there, they would here.