Largemouth Bass

Look at the mouth and the back fin. On a largemouth bass, the upper jaw extends past the back edge of the eye when the mouth is closed, and the spiny front part of the dorsal fin is almost separated from the soft back part by a deep notch.

Largemouth are olive to green on the back, fading to white on the belly, with a dark, often broken horizontal stripe along the side. Young fish show the stripe most clearly; big fish can look almost solid green or bronze in stained water.

Largemouth bass are native to eastern and central North America and have been stocked in every region of the United States and in many other countries. They do best in warm, quiet, fairly clear water: natural lakes, ponds, reservoirs, backwaters and slow rivers. They tolerate a little salt and are sometimes caught in brackish creeks.

Bass are ambush predators and stay close to cover: aquatic grass, lily pads, reeds, fallen trees, stumps, docks, rocks and bridge pilings. Big bass also use offshore structure such as drop-offs, humps, ledges and channel edges, especially in summer and winter.

Young bass eat tiny drifting animals and insects, then switch to small fish once they reach about 2 inches. Adults eat almost anything that fits in their mouth: shad, shiners, sunfish, crayfish, frogs and large insects, and occasionally snakes, mice and ducklings.

Bass hunt mostly by sight and by sensing movement through their lateral line, which is why they feed best at dawn and dusk, on cloudy days and in slightly stained water.

Most largemouth bass caught are 12 to 20 inches long and weigh 1 to 5 pounds. Females grow bigger than males. Bass grow fastest in long, warm growing seasons, so the South produces the most trophies; northern bass grow more slowly but often live longer. Most live 5 to 10 years, and some pass 15.

The all-tackle world record is 22 pounds 4 ounces, caught by George Perry in Montgomery Lake, Georgia, in 1932 and tied by Manabu Kurita at Lake Biwa, Japan, in 2009. The certified Florida record is 17.27 pounds.

Largemouth bass spawn in spring, once the water warms into the low to mid 60s °F. That is as early as January in South Florida and as late as June in northern states.

Males fan out round beds, usually in 1 to 6 feet of water on sand, gravel or another firm bottom in a protected spot. A female lays thousands of eggs in the nest and leaves; the male guards the eggs, which hatch within a few days, and then guards the fry until they scatter. After spawning, big females rest and recover in slightly deeper water.