Standard Weights (Ws) for Striped Bass, White Bass, and Hybrid Striped Bass

We developed relationships between standard weight (Ws, g) and total length (TL, mm) for striped bass Morone saxatilis, white bass M. chrysops, and palmetto bass M. saxatilis ♀ × M. chrysops ♂ by use of the regression-line–percentile (RLP) technique. The proposed 75th-percentile-based Ws equations are: log10 Ws = −4.924 + 3.007 log10TL for striped bass; log10 Ws = −5.066 + 3.081 log10TL for white bass; and log10 Ws = −5.201 + 3.139 log10 TL for hybrid striped bass. These formulae produced distributions for individual and population-mean relative-weight (Wr) values similar to those observed for other species in earlier studies (Wr = 100·W / Ws). The previously defined target range for Wr encompassed reasonable proportions of striped bass, white bass, and hybrid striped bass in the present study. The 75th-percentile weights for centimeter classes provided log10weight-log10length relationships that may be characterized as better than average. There were no appreciable length-related trends observed for the proposed standards. We predicted confidence intervals for mean Wr of populations and specific length categories from individual populations in order to calculate the number of individuals needed to give a confidence interval of selected width. We observed no relationships between Wr and population-structure indices.