Difference between white bass and drum

What to look for? A guy came up to me today and asked what kind of fish it was he caught and I wasn’t 100% sure. I’ve never caught a white bass before and I thought it looked a lot like a drum. I hope I was right! I looked at pics online of white bass next to a drum and it looks closely alike.

White bass have horizontal black spots in multiple rows down the length of thier bodies. Drum do not.

White bass are white with faint black stripes, and a drum or more commonly called Sheepshead is kind of a blueish gray

Those are some nice examples of whites

It had the faint stripes but the rest of it looked like a drum, and that’s what threw me off??

They are not the same shape. Drum have a big hump back while bass are streamlined. Drum have a purple hue, I call them purple bass. White bass are plain silver with stripes. Drum have a mouth on the bottom, bass have a mouth on the front.

Sheephead known as drum and are also called white bass. Stripers are also called by white bass by some. But to me a stripper is a striper.

A white bass mouth is more like a bass mouth and a drum/sheephead mouth is more like a sucker mouth.

Personally I think there is no similarities between the two species besides they both live in water.

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Sheephead known as drum and are also called white bass. Stripers are also called by white bass by some. But to me a stripper is a striper.

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You know it’s funny as I was out there today fishing and realized you will never learn fishing til you get out there and tango..that’s the bottom line..especially after this gentleman asked me what type of fish it was.. wished I knew what it was 100%… bite/baits/ what works what doesn’t work.. IMO.

Moxie, Here is a sh^%head

This post is gonna haunt me til I catch a white bass… my son says it looks more like the white bass but I’m more towards the drum. Sleepless nights ahead

Moxie, in addition to the stripes and the differences in their mouth, look at the dorsal fin. Distinctly different

Both your pictures are good examples Randy and about as accurate as you can get. Thier both pretty good eating Mox.

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Thier both pretty good eating Mox.

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I just threw up a little.

C’mon Kevin you don’t really think that do ya, smoked carp, bullheads, canned suckers? all those under appreciated species…

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Thier both pretty good eating Mox.

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I just threw up a little.

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x2

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Thier both pretty good eating Mox.

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I just threw up a little.

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I was just thinking the same thing

White’s are good fish samich material

White bass isn’t bass. Not my first choice, but not bad. I’ve had sheepy before twice…the first and the last time.

Both are very good eating. Just have to get all the fat and red flesh off the back side of them. I save only the loin of the sheephead. Have had people say that they could tell instantly if they were eating sheephead or walleye. I’ve tested them and they could not. When they ate the sheephead they swore they were eating walleye. All in a matter of taking proper care of them.

I could see MAYBE having a problem distinguishing between crappies and white bass, but sheephead?

Sheephead are probably the single most common fish you’ll catch fishing the river. You’ll lear to recognize them pretty quick.

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White bass isn’t bass.

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Actually Brian… Whites are true Basses-“Seabass” family…

Largemouth and Smallmouth bass are in the Sunfish family…

But I’m sure you already knew that…..

Thanks for pics Randy and for all the input.. the more I look at the pic now I’m thinking it was a white bass.