Striped bass fishes typically spawn in March, April, and May. They do it when the water temperature reaches the range between 60 to 68 degrees. As far as spawning is concerned, striped bass prefers rivers, and once they release millions of eggs, the water current carries them to various places.
Striped bass spread their eggs across the river, and they show no form of protection or parental care. When spawning, up to seven or eight males surround a large female and bump into her. During the ovulation stage, ripe eggs are released and scattered in the water. Simultaneously, male stripe bass fishes release their sperm.
Naturally, fertilized eggs must go with the river currents to avoid any form of suffocation until hatching occurs, which takes about 48 hours. Little striped bass fingerlings stay in estuaries and low rivers. Since the fertilized eggs must go with the currents until hatching, impoundments are unfit for reproduction.
It must be free-flowing freshwater. There are lots of difficulties in hatchery procedures, especially for procuring females with eggs flowing freely. However, there is a modern technique for inducing ovulation through hormonal use.
Feeding Habits
Atlantic striped basses are voracious eaters and opportunistic predators who mostly consume various invertebrates and small fish. Adults prefer golden shiners, threadfin shad, and gizzards, while the young ones enjoy feeding on mayflies and amphipods. The significantly smaller ones feed mostly on zooplankton.
Like every other temperate bass, the striped bass move in schools and tend to feed simultaneously. Striped bass feeds the most during the early hours of the day and sporadically throughout the day. Their feeding slows down when the temperature of the water drops below 50 degrees.
Life Span and Growth
The striped bass can live for up to 30 years. Usually, their growth depends on where they live. Male stripers get sexually mature between 2 and 4 years of age, while females are mature enough to reproduce when they are 4 to 8 years old.
These predators can get a size of up to 10 -12 inches in the first year. Stripers have reached weights of over 45 pounds in Florida.
Florida Striped Bass Stocks
Striped bass stopped naturally reproducing in the St Johns River by the early 1970s. The striped bass stocks in the St. Johns river started in 1972. Further developments in the hatchery led to large-scale productions of the sunshine bass in 1981. The FWC and USFWS have stocked over 20 million stripers and 10 million sunshine in the last 40 years. The stocking in the Florida river served to restore the striper population and provide fishermen with exceptional angling opportunities.
Reproducing
Hybrid striped bass generally cannot naturally reproduce, so their numbers depend on the number of fish stocked. In the spring, hybrids may undergo spawning migrations to upstream areas into reservoirs in an attempt to spawn despite being sterile. The average lifespan is between five to six years.
However, there have been reports of fertile hybrid striped bass that backcross with the white bass. Hybrid striped bass is one of the only hybrids that can be fertile. In this case, males reach maturity around one year of age, and females reach maturity at about two years old. They produce eggs and sperm in the spring when the water temperatures are 59 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The level of fertility of hybrids is reduced compared to the parental species.
Diet
A hybrid striped bass diet includes the white and black crappie, the bluegill, shad, sunfish, and the fathead minnows—Threadfin and Gizzard shad are the main prey species. Fish under 50 mm feed mostly on crustacean zooplankton. After growing beyond 50 mm, the young hybrid’s diets consist of mostly small fish, insects, and large zooplankton.
