Everybody knows largemouth bass. Tournaments tie heavy purses to them. Kitschy wall decor celebrates them. They’re America’s fish.
And even though catching one can be as easy as putting a worm on a hook under a bobber, tangling with the biggest specimens takes some real know-how. Understanding behavior and seasonality is essential for quality and quantity of fish. Over the past few decades, fly anglers have embraced the challenge and rush of hard-hitting and high-jumping black bass. They’ve come to understand that figuring out warmwater lunkers is as sophisticated an enterprise as finessing trophy trout.
The five pieces of largemouth bass trivia I’m sharing today probably won’t help you hook more, bigger fish. But they’re certainly interesting. If you’re a fly fisher, dropping one of these facts at the local boat launch might even earn you some street cred with the sparkly boat crowd.
Helicopter parenting.
Most anglers are aware that male bass protect their nests. They’ll aggressively chase off any potential predator. But the fatherly care doesn’t stop when the eggs hatch. Largemouth males will swim close to the “fry ball” or “brood swarm” of tiny bass that stay together for safety themselves. Once the fry disperse, the adult will swim away.
They suck.
Technically, they create a pocket of negative pressure when they open their jaws. Something like a baitfish is sucked in at an incredibly fast speed. This means that when a largemouth feeds or strikes a lure, they aren’t using their mouths in the same way that most fish bite. The result might be an incredibly gentle “take,” especially if the fish doesn’t turn or swim away.
Florida Man Bass.
In 2024, what was thought to be a strain of largemouth bass native to Florida was designated as a unique species. Micropterus salmoides is now the Florida Bass, while the largemouth has been redesignated as Micropterus nigricans. To the naked eye, they’re virtually identical. You literally have to count scales to have a chance in distinguishing the species. But genetically? They’re unmistakably different.
Chianti and fava beans.
Largemouth are famous for eating things that nearly match the size of the fish engaged in predation. They also aren’t above conspecific piscivorous cannibalism. That is to say, they’ll eat bass that are just a little smaller than themselves. Since they don’t chew, they rely on a days-long digestive conveyer belt to move the whole fish along in the process.
Littlest Biggest Largemouth.
A “10-pound bass” is an attainable, albeit lofty goal in almost every state in the union. But you’re really shooting for the moon if that is your angling aim in Hawaii, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, or South Dakota. Each of these states’ records falls short of the ten pound mark.