Yellow Bass

The yellow bass is a deep bodied fish that possesses five to seven dark stripes laterally along the sides, the lowest few of these are often broken or disrupted anterior to the origin of the anal fin. It is somewhat similar to two other sister species in the genus Morone, the white bass and the striped bass, and is distinguishable from both of these species by having the offset lateral stripes above the anal fin, and from not possessing tooth patches on the tongue. The yellow bass differs further from the white bass by having nine to ten anal rays in comparison to eleven or thirteen. The back of the fish is usually a dark olive green, and the abdomen and sides are often a silvery yellow.

The yellow bass may be found in somewhat clear waters of the Mississippi River from Minnesota to Louisiana and may also be found in the Trinity River and the Tennessee River. It can also be found in lakes surrounding these rivers, especially in areas with dense vegetation and low turbidity, and may migrate into brackish estuaries.

Food exploited by juvenile yellow bass include small aquatic invertebrates such as copepods and aquatic insects. The juvenile yellow bass feed almost exclusively on aquatic invertebrates, and once they reach adulthood they feed primarily on other small fishes; the rest of their diet consists of small crustaceans.