Just wondering about some of you guys thoughts on White Bass being stocked in a pond..

Why use white bass instead of HSB? White bass and HSB are very simililar fish except for size of adult fish.

The're fun and easy to catch. but I'm guessing that they would be a fierce competitor with LMB for forage. I tossed several in a small pond of mine a couple of years back, but they become causalities of
an otter that also ate quite a few other fish in the pond.

I would go with HSB personally. Great fun to catch and get to nice sizes.

WB wouldn't spawn in a pond either.

Yeah I knew they wouldn't spawn.. Was wondering how they would do keeping small BG in check. Plus I can catch these by the 100's at the right time if year.. Also with the smaller gape wouldn't they target smaller gills..

There are documented cases of them spawning on rocky shorelines.

Dave, I thought that was HSB. Didn't Stacy from Stubby Steve's post that?

White bass can spawn with the right conditions (% higher than HSB but still low) where as HSB may be able to with one of the parentals (WB or SB) or HSB if the right conditions exist . Called functional sterility. See this from SRAC https://srac.tamu.edu/index.cfm/event/getFactSheet/whichfactsheet/54/ .

Spawning
Hybrid striped bass, unlike some
other hybrids, is fertile. It is
oviparous (egg-laying) like the
parental species and produces eggs
and sperm in the spring when
temperatures are 15 to 20° C. Some
males mature at the age of 1 year
(approximately 250 mm long and 500
grams), and all are mature at 2 years
of age. A few females are mature at
2 years of age, but all are mature at 3
years. Females produce an average
of 160,000 eggs per pound of body
weight and spawn once a year.
Males may spawn many times over
the spawning season.
Natural spawning of hybrids has
been verified in a few instances.
They may participate in spawning
runs with striped bass or possibly
white bass. There are also confirmed
cases of reproduction in reservoirs
that contain only hybrid striped bass.
Hybrid striped bass produce sperm
and eggs during the spring when
water temperature is between 55 to
70° F. Temperatures of 65° to 68° F
are ideal for spawning hybrids and
the parental species. Spawning occurs
from mid-March through May
depending on location. Spawning
season in any one location usually
lasts 4 to 5 weeks. Hybrids have been
observed participating in spawning
acts in areas that contain clear shallow
rocky shoals that are 1 to 3 feet
deep. Females come to the surface
during the spawning act and several
males accompany her. The males appear
to bump and butt the female
which may stimulate egg release.
Released eggs are immediately fertilized
by the males.
The eggs of striped bass x white bass
hybrids are intermediate in size to
those of the parental species. They
are semi-buoyant like striped bass
eggs, although they seem to be
heavier than striped bass eggs. Eggs
of this cross are generally not adhesive
like white bass eggs and must
be buoyed up by the turbulent water
flow till they hatch. Other hybrid
crosses such as striped bass x white
perch have adhesive eggs.
Eggs hatch in approximately 2 days
at water temperatures of 65 to
68° F. At colder temperatures eggs
may take over 72 hours to hatch.
Newly hatched fry do not have fully
developed mouth parts and do not
feed until they are approximately 5
days old. During this swim-up stage
the relatively large oil droplet is used
as a food source.

Scott, is was many years ago in PB1 site. A TPWD guy called Fishman was on quite a bit. I stated that White Bass needed running water for spawning. He pointed me toward a study of them spawning on a wind swept dam loaded with rip rap.

Mainly I'm interested because I love to catch them, they could help control small bluegill, and there easy to get for FREE!! any thoughts on them helping control small bluegill due to the limited mouth gape,? I'm not interested in HSB unless there free and won't take pellets away from my BG..

WB would eat small BG, but are they going to make any appreciable difference by trimming large numbers of small BG? I doubt it. Weissguy on here has some WB in his 12 acre lake. He says they chase the schools of GSH up and down his lake. Just like HSB, they are more open water fish and wouldn't be sharing the same habitat as BG very often. Bringing WB into your pond from the wild will carry risks... Disease, parasites and other hitch hikers. I'd skip them unless you really wanna experiment, but I think you'll find they aren't gonna help with your goal of growing trophy BG.

Plus the WB will eat LMB fry when the fry are vulnerable in schools and when they are less than 2". Actually the small LMB would be vulnerable to WB predation longer during their development than BG due to body shape. For every wild fish one introduces to their pond, it increases the risk of parasite and disease introduction with each fish added. Research the parasites and diseases of found in white bass from public waters.

We often catch White Bass (Sand bass) among stripers in Lake Texoma and they are chasing shad out in the open areas of the lake which would be similar to the chasing of GSH in a 12 acre lake.

I asked a similar Q in a previous post, (HSB instead of WB). It seems to me that either HSB or WB could help reduce the number of shad, thereby causing LMB to eat more BG, resulting in a more balanced BG population. But.. I'm no expert!

What sized pond would these WB go in, and what are the other fish in the pond?

About a 4 acre pond.. BG and LMB.. Lots of big Bg and many nice bass too, but I've noticed alot of small BG..