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The Life of a Largemouth Bass
by Chris Bowser
http://www.bassattacksdvd.com
The Largemouth Bass is American's all-out favorite game
fish! It is probably the most glamorous species in the
fresh waters of the world today.
The largemouth is fundamentally a lake fish, and that is
where it colonizes best. It is not a scavenger, it is
strictly predaceous! It is not fussy about food. "If it
moves, eat it!" is a kind of motto of the species.
We bass fishermen today are fortunate that our
predecessors in their wisdom saw fit to introduce this
species of fish into waters far beyond its natural
habitat. Largemouth bass are now to be found extensively
in "warm" freshwaters around the world. However, because
this bass is by nature exceptionally wary of the dangers
affecting its existence, it is frequently frustrating to
not be consistently successful in catching them.
The Largemouth Bass is the basic freshwater game fish. He
is voracious as a predator but extremely wary of danger
and spends only a very small portion of each day actually
feeding.
The largemouth bass are extremely curious and this results
in a good many getting hooked early in life. But they soon
become wary (maybe "educated" is a better word) and often
this leads anglers to believe a lake is "fished out" or
does not contain many bass. A largemouth bass soon learns
that lures, especially those it sees most often, can get
it into trouble. The quality of fish and fishing can be
readily diminished by too much angling pressure (at least
by too much removal of the larger breeding-size bass).
However, an undesirable alteration or destruction of its
habitat is the greatest hazard contributing to the
depletion of the species in any given body of water.
The Largemouth Bass (Micropterus Salmoides) is the most
adaptable of all the bass species. Given the choice, he
will avoid bottom areas of lakes and other waters which
are overly muddy or layered with silt. But the Largemouth
Bass is also very tolerant, and if muddy water is
unavoidable from time to time he will simply make do. The
water may be clear, stained, murky, warm, cool, shallow,
deep, cover-free, or infested with jungle-like swamp
growth and chances are excellent that "Micropterus" and
his progeny will get alone just fine.
The Largemouth bass feed primarily by sound (vibration)
and sight. They can detect even the smallest vibrations
caused by other fish or prey pushing aside water as they
move through or onto it. With their extremely acute vision
they take full advantage of periods of areas of subdued
light. Any predator prefers to remain in darker waters
where it is somewhat concealed and where it is far easier
to see prey passing by which is swimming in better-lit
water while the bass remains in semi-darkness.
It is impossible to catch bass until you find them!
Therefore, the procedures for locating where they live,
feed, relax and rest up between feeding activities are
basic to successful catching.
Fortunately, it is possible to predict fairly well where
bass are located at any given time or place if an angler
is prepared with an full understanding of the habits and
behavior of this fish.
The old admonition to "think like the fish" is merely an
incentive to learn the whys and reasons of a fish's normal
behavior in order to be more successful in catching them.
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