Photo by Milt Rosko

Hybrid stripers are great game fish. They're strong, hardy, live in schools and bite voraciously. As a laboratory created fish they aren't native anywhere. Yet, they live -- indeed thrive -- in both rivers and lakes. What more could an angler want?

West Virginia anglers have it good when it comes to hybrid striper fishing. There's darn near 300 miles of the Ohio River, quite a few miles of the Kanawha River and at least three good lakes in the state: R.D. Bailey, Bluestone and East Lynn.

The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR) stocks each of these waters heavily. As a consequence, they support both good numbers of fish and good-sized ones as well. The Ohio River receives the additional benefit of stockings from Ohio and Kentucky.

Before you set out to catch hybrid stripers, however, you need to understand a little something about them.

Hybrid striped bass are half striper and half white bass. These fish do not crossbreed naturally; they're produced in hatcheries by biologists. In most cases, fertilizing an egg from a female striped bass with sperm from a male white bass creates the hybridization. This is known as the original cross. It's used primarily in sport-fish stocking programs.

It's possible to crossbreed them the other way. Just reverse the process; fertilize an egg from a female white bass with the sperm from a male striped bass. This is known as a reciprocal cross. It's used mostly for domestic food production.

Either cross will tolerate wide ranges in water temperatures. Hybrid striped bass are sterile and have a typical life span of seven to eight years. They grow rapidly. In some waters, they'll measure 14 inches in two years and 18 to 20 in three years. West Virginia hybrids grow a little slower than that, but not much slower.

Distinguishing hybrids from either stripers or white bass can be difficult. Hybrids generally have the body shape of a white bass. They'll nearly always have broken lines consisting of black markings running the length of their bodies. Stripers and white bass tend to show straight, continuous lines.

White bass have a heart-shaped patch of teeth on their tongues, while striped bass have two distinct parallel lines. A hybrid bass, on the other hand, has either the teeth lines growing together or they're so close they look to be one.

There's a little science and a lot of art in distinguishing these fish from their parents. The best way to learn is to catch a bunch of them. After a while, you'll get good at it.

The place to catch a lot of hybrids is the Ohio River. All three major states along the river -- Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia -- stock hybrids. Kentucky has the heaviest stocking program and stocks stripers as well as hybrids.

Ohio and West Virginia have a working agreement with their stocking programs. West Virginia stocks the Willow Island Pool upstream and Ohio stocks the Belleville Pool downstream. Both states stock at a moderate rate, about five hybrids per river acre, per year. Given their excellent survival rate, the fishable population of hybrids stays high and constant all along the river.

These fish are roamers. As such, it's not uncommon to catch a striper in West Virginia waters. These fish have worked their way upstream from the Kentucky release points. And, of course, the hybrid fingerlings from all three states end up in a lot of the same places.

By May, the water in the Ohio River should be reasonably stable and about as clear as it's going to get. The hybrids will be schooled up near almost any creek mouth or sizeable inflow into the river. The occasional striper will almost always be caught in the tailrace waters below the dams.