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. The Escambia, Apalachicola and Ochlockonee rivers and Lakes Talquin and Seminole are regularly stocked with sunshine and are good places to fish. February and March and September and October are the best months to fish for this species.