It's where the current state record fish was caught. Sharing some of the same waters with the striped bass is a much smaller, but native bass called the white bass. Seldom getting bigger than three pounds, white bass school and move up the Apalachicola and Ochlockonee rivers in the spring like the striped bass. Anglers catch them on light tackle using crayfish and live freshwater shrimp. They also like small yellow jigs and it is possible to catch a white bass when fishing for stripers.
White bass are fun to catch but they have another important role in the state's fisheries program.
Biologists at the hatcheries cross white bass with striped bass to create the sunshine, or hybrid, bass. Sunshines are bigger than white bass but smaller than stripers. The artificially created fish are stocked into selected rivers and lake in north and central Florida. Coming from parents that don't have a high tolerance for warm water, these fish don't adapt well to south Florida. A limited number of them are in Commission managed fish impoundments in Palm Beach and Manatee Counties.