How to recognise it
- A dark stripe runs along each side.
- With the mouth closed, the jaw reaches well past the back edge of the eye. This is the quickest way to tell it from a spotted bass.
- Most have no tooth patch on the tongue.
Habitat: where it lives
- Seeks cover: logs, rock ledges, vegetation and man-made structures.
- Prefers clear, quiet water but tolerates a wide range of habitats.
- Native to many Texas rivers and lakes. The Florida largemouth, a subspecies, has been stocked into many Texas lakes.
Habits: behavior, spawning and growth
- Young bass school; adults are usually solitary. Several adults may share a small area without interacting.
- An ambush hunter: it hides among plants, roots or limbs and strikes prey that comes past.
- Becomes a predator at about 2 in long; larger bass eat smaller bass.
- The male builds the nest in 2–8 ft of water, on any bottom but soft mud, and guards the eggs. The fry hatch in 5–10 days and stay in a group near the nest under his watch.
- Grows to 4–6 in in its first year, 8–12 in by two and about 16 in by three. Average lifespan is 16 years.
Where and when
- Near cover: logs, rock ledges, weeds, docks, bridges, sunken trees and drop-offs.
- Spawns in spring when the water reaches about 60°F, anywhere from February to May in Texas, on nests 2–8 ft deep.
- Topwater lures work best early in the morning and toward dark.
Bait and lures
Live and natural bait
- Large live shiners (8–9 in) under a bobber.
Lures
- Plastic worms
- Jigs
- Soft-plastic crayfish, frogs and lizards
- Spinnerbaits
- Crankbaits and ¼–½ oz lipless crankbaits
- Swimbaits
- Topwater lures
Why these baits work
- Adults eat almost nothing but fish and crayfish, so the baits that work look like one: live shiners, soft-plastic crayfish, crankbaits and swimbaits.
- It ambushes from cover, so a bait has to pass close to the log, weed edge or dock it's hiding in.
- Lures work best when they resemble fish, crayfish, worms, insects or frogs (Missouri Dept. of Conservation).
Rod and reel setups
Grouped by lure fishing (artificial baits) and bait fishing (live or natural bait).
Bait fishing
- Rod
- A rod rated for 30 lb line
- Reel
- Spinning or baitcasting reel
- Line
- Heavy mono, around 30 lb
- Hook & rig
- 4/0–5/0 hook through both lips of an 8–9 in shiner, under a bobber.
Source: Florida FWC: Pro tips for bass
Tips
- If fish are active near the surface, use bigger lures and reel faster. If they're holding near the bottom, slow down and go smaller.
- A bass will almost always eat a real shiner or crayfish faster than a plastic one — but an inactive bass may strike a fast-moving topwater plug or buzzbait out of annoyance when it would ignore a live shiner sitting still under a bobber. Use live bait for a bass you know is feeding; switch to lures to provoke one that isn't.
On the table: cleaning and cooking
- Fillet it: cut behind the gill cover down to the backbone, run the knife along the backbone to the tail, then skin the fillet and cut out the ribs.
Step-by-step cleaning, keeping fish fresh and eating safely are in the handbook.
Size and bag limits vary by state, species and lake. Current limits: Texas (TPWD); elsewhere, your state's fish and wildlife agency. Check before you keep a fish.
