Yellow Fellows

Robert and I fished a creek this morning. I think he caught 3 or 4 fish to my 1. We caught a ton of small yellow bass, some whites and Mr. Whiskers showed up. The creek was full of spawning shad. I noticed when I was leaving that Robert was using a much smaller clouser than what I was using. On the bigger sandies I think Robert and I were head to head, but for overall numbers Robert had the right idea by using the smaller fly. Yellow bass are a pretty cool little fish. Sometimes they are confused with white bass or striped bass, especially as juveniles.  Their body is a golden-yellow with 5 to 7 horizontal lines. The lower lines appear broken and offset about midway. The dorsal fins are connected and the second and third anal spines similar in length. Unlike white bass, hybrids and striped bass, yellows don’t have a tooth patch on their tongue. The growth rate of yellow bass is slow and they are generally small. Most will be smaller than 6 inches with bigger yellows running 6 to 13 inches in length. A couple other names for yellow bass are barfish and striped jack. I have never eaten yellow bass, but have heard they are very good.