Bass fishing - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Bass fishing is the activity of angling

Angling

Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...

for the North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n gamefish

Fish

Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...

known colloquially as the black bass. There are numerous black bass species considered as gamefish in North America, including largemouth bass

Largemouth bass

The largemouth bass is a species of black bass in the sunfish family native to North America . It is also known as widemouth bass, bigmouth, black bass, bucketmouth, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, green trout, linesides, Oswego bass, southern largemouth...

(Micropterus salmoides), smallmouth bass

Smallmouth bass

The smallmouth bass is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of the order Perciformes. It is the type species of its genus...

(Micropterus dolomieui), Spotted bass

Spotted bass

The Spotted Bass , also called "Spotty", "Leeman", or "Spots" in various fishing communities, is a species of freshwater fish sunfish family of order Perciformes. One of the black basses, it is native to the Mississippi River basin and across theGulf States, from central Texas through the Florida...

or Kentucky bass (Micropterus punctatus), Guadalupe bass

Guadalupe bass

The Guadalupe bass is a rare species of fish endemic to the U.S. state of Texas, where it also is the official state fish. It is restricted to creeks and rivers , and was formerly listed as vulnerable, but IUCN currently considers the data insufficient to determine its status...

(Micropterus treculii), and many other species and subspecies of the genus Micropterus. Though referred to as bass

Bass (fish)

Bass is a name shared by many different species of popular gamefish. The term encompasses both freshwater and marine species. All belong to the large order Perciformes, or perch-like fishes, and in fact the word bass comes from Middle English bars, meaning "perch."-Types of basses:*The temperate...

, all are actually members of the sunfish family (Centrarchidae

Centrarchidae

The sunfishes are a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes. The type genus is Centrarchus . The family's 27 species includes many fishes familiar to North Americans, including the rock bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and crappies...

: order Perciformes

Perciformes

The Perciformes, also called the Percomorphi or Acanthopteri, is one of the largest orders of vertebrates, containing about 40% of all bony fish. Perciformes means perch-like. They belong to the class of ray-finned fish and comprise over 7,000 species found in almost all aquatic environments...

).

Modern bass fishing has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry. The sport has changed drastically since its beginnings in the late 19th century. From humble beginnings, the black bass has become the second most specifically sought-after game fish in the United States. The sport has driven the development of all manner of fishing gear, including rods, reels, lines, lures, electronic depth and fish-finding instruments, drift boats, float tubes, and specialized bass boats.

Black bass as Gamefish

All black bass are well-known as strong fighters, and are fished recreationally. Depending upon species and various other factors such as water quality and availability of food, black bass may be found in lakes, reservoirs, ponds, rivers, streams, creeks, even roadside ditches. Largemouth are known for their greater overall size and resistance when hooked, favoring short, powerful runs and escape to cover such as submerged logs or weedbeds, while smallmouth bass tend to jump more and fight aggressively on the surface when hooked, in order to throw the hook.

All black bass are scent as well as visual predators so care should be taken to ensure no foreign scents, like bug spray, or any outdoor chemicals, or any personal chemicals, like tobacco, contaminate one's hands when handling your line, reels, rods, artificial baits, and particularly soft plastics. Bass are usually fileted when taken for the table; the flesh is white and flaky, with a mild taste when cooked.

Background

Bass fishing in the United States largely evolved on its own, and was not influenced by angling developments in Europe or other parts of the world. Indeed modern British sea bass fisherman look to the United States freshwater bass techniques for inspiration for lure fishing and to the USA, Japan and China for tackle. During the early-to-mid-19th century, wealthy sport anglers in the United States (mostly located in the northeastern portion of the country) largely confined themselves to trout and salmon fishing using fly rods

Fly fishing

Fly fishing is an angling method in which an artificial 'fly' is used to catch fish. The fly is cast using a fly rod, reel, and specialized weighted line. Casting a nearly weightless fly or 'lure' requires casting techniques significantly different from other forms of casting...

. While smallmouth bass

Smallmouth bass

The smallmouth bass is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of the order Perciformes. It is the type species of its genus...

were sought by some fly fishermen, most bass fishing was done by sustenance anglers using poles

Fishing rod

A fishing rod or a fishing pole is a tool used to catch fish, usually in conjunction with the pastime of angling, and can also be used in competition casting. . A length of fishing line is attached to a long, flexible rod or pole: one end terminates in a hook for catching the fish...

and live bait. The working-class heritage of bass fishing strongly influenced the sport and is manifested even today in its terminology, hobbyist literature, and media coverage.

In the mid-19th century, the first artificial lure used for bass was developed in the form of an Artificial fly

Artificial fly

An artificial fly or fly lure is a type of fishing lure, usually used in the sport of fly fishing . In general, artificial flies are the bait which fly fishers present to their target species of fish while fly fishing...

. At first, these artificial fly patterns were largely derivations of existing trout and salmon flies

Artificial fly

. As time went on, new fly patterns were specifically developed to fish for bass, as well as heavier spinner/fly lures that could be cast by the baitcasting and fixed-spool casting reels

Fishing reel

A fishing reel is a "cylindrical device attached to a fishing rod used in winding the line". Modern fishing reels usually have fittings which make it easier to retrieve the line and deploy it for better accuracy or distance. Fishing reels are traditionally used in the recreational sport of angling...

and rods

Fishing rod

available at the time. Floating wooden lures(plugs) or poppers of lightweight cork or balsa were introduced around 1900, sometimes combined with hooks dressed with artificial fur or feathers. Production of the plastic worm began in 1949, but it was not until the 1960s that its use became popular. The plastic worm revolutionized the sport of bass fishing.

In the United States, the sport of bass fishing was greatly advanced by the stocking of largemouth and smallmouth bass outside their native ranges in the latter portion of the 19th century. As the nation's railroad system expanded, large numbers of 'tank' ponds were built by damming various small creeks that intersected the tracks in order to provide water for steam engine

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

s; later, new towns often sprang up alongside these water stop

Water stop

A water stop or water station on a railroad is a place where trains stop to replenish water. The stopping of the train itself is also referred to as "water stop". The term originates from the times of steam engines, when large amounts of water were essential...

s. Shippers found that black bass were a hardy species that could be transported in buckets or barrels via the railroad, sometimes using the spigot from the railroad water tank to aerate the fingerlings.

Largemouth bass were often stocked in tank ponds and warmer lakes, while smallmouth bass were distributed to lakes and rivers throughout the northern and western United States, as far west as California. Smallmouth were transplanted east of the Appalachians just before the Civil War, and afterwards introduced into New England.

Largemouth bass populations boomed after the U.S. Department of Agriculture began to advise and assist farmers in constructing and stocking farm ponds with largemouth bass, even offering advice on managing various fish species. Soon, those who had stocked largemouth bass on their farm ponds began to pursue them on a burgeoning number of new reservoirs and impoundments built in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s. These impoundments coincided with a postwar fishing boom, additional funds from sales of fishing licenses for the first large-scale attempts at bass fisheries management. This was especially true in the southern United States, where the largemouth bass thrived in waters too warm or turbid for other types of gamefish.

With increased industrialization and development, many of the nation's eastern trout rivers were dammed, polluted, or allowed to silt up, raising water temperatures and killing off the native brook trout

Brook trout

The brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis, is a species of fish in the salmon family of order Salmoniformes. In many parts of its range, it is known as the speckled trout or squaretail. A potamodromous population in Lake Superior are known as coaster trout or, simply, as coasters...

. Smallmouth bass were often introduced to northern rivers now too warm for native trout, and slowly became a popular gamefish with many anglers. Equally adaptable to large, cool-water impoundments and reservoirs, the smallmouth also spread far beyond its original native range. Later, smallmouth populations also began to decline after years of damage caused by overdevelopment and industrial and agricultural pollution, as well as a loss of river habitat caused by damming many formerly wild rivers in order to form lakes or reservoirs. In recent years, a renewed emphasis on preserving water quality and riparian habitat in the nation's rivers and lakes, together with stricter management practices, eventually benefited smallmouth populations and has caused a resurgence in their popularity with anglers.

Rise of modern bass fishing

By the early 20th century, bass fishing had been well established as a sport with its own following. Though the use of artificial lures for bass had begun with the Artificial fly

Artificial fly

and fly fishing

Fly fishing

tackle, the bait casting rod and reel soon came to dominate the sport. Although fixed-spool reels were introduced in use in the United States as early as the 1870s, spinning

Fishing reel

reels and rods

Fishing rod

did not gain wide acceptance as an angling tool until the 1950s. Since that time, most bass anglers have used bait casting or spinning tackle, using either artificial lures or live bait (See Fishing rod

Fishing rod

, Fishing reel

Fishing reel

).

During the 1950s and 1960s, the development of specific angling tools for bass significantly increased angler bass catches and helped stimulate the development of the sport. Some of these innovations include the invention of monofilament nylon fishing lines, the fiberglass

Fiberglass

Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...

(later graphite

Graphite

The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Ancient Greek γράφω , "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead . Unlike diamond , graphite is an electrical conductor, a semimetal...

composite) fishing rod, the electric trolling motor, the fish finder/depth locator, and new artificial lures and baits made of various plastics. Recently, advanced electronics that mimic the sounds of schooling bait fish

Bait fish

Bait fish are small fish caught for use as bait to attract large predatory fish, particularly game fish. Species used are typically those that are common and breed rapidly, making them easy to catch and in regular supply. Examples of marine bait fish are anchovies, halfbeaks such as ballyhoo, and...

have been introduced, and a controversy has arisen over the proper use of these devices in bass tournament fishing.

Since the early 1990s, fly fishing

Fly fishing

for bass, particularly smallmouth bass, has again become popular, using fly patterns, rods

Fishing rod

, and fly lines

Fly fishing

suited for bass.

Fishermen, conservation groups, and governmental wildlife departments have introduced black bass of various species across the world for the sport of fishing. Outside North America, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

and South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

have active programs.

Bass fishing as a sport was helped along by the chase for the standing world record which has held for over 75 years. Though surrounded by controversy it is widely accepted that in 1932 a 22 pound 4 ounce bass was caught by George Perry in Montgomery Lake, Georgia. It is one of the longest standing records in the sport of fishing. This record was tied on July 2, 2009 when Aichi Japan resident Manabu Kurita caught a 22 pound 4 ounce largemouth bass in Lake Biwa

Lake Biwa

is the largest freshwater lake in Japan, located in Shiga Prefecture , northeast of the former capital city of Kyoto. Because of its proximity to the ancient capital, references to Lake Biwa appear frequently in Japanese literature, particularly in poetry and in historical accounts of battles.-...

Population management

The increasingly popularity of the sport combined with "catch and release" practices have in some cases led to an overpopulation of bass.

An overpopulated, stunted bass population can best be detected in the spring when all the bass are at least one year old. If virtually all the bass are 4 inches long or smaller, the population is probably stunted. Some indicators that a bass population is overpopulated:

(a) The largemouth bass caught are all less than 1 pound and are "skinny".
(b) The bluegills are 1/2 pound and larger (too large for the bass to eat).
An overpopulation an/or stunting of bass may be caused by several factors including:
(a) Not enough bass being harvested.
(b) Too few bluegill or redear sunfish were stocked initially or they are failing to reproduce and the
bass population does not have an adequate food supply.

It is posited that the easiest way to control an overpopulation of largemouth bass is by increasing the take of bass. This is clearly an effective method of thinning the bass population providing recreation at the same time - which is more important to American Bass anglers. It may take two to three years to bring the population back into balance. If forage fish

Forage fish

Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small fish which are preyed on by larger predators for food. Predators include other larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Typical ocean forage fish feed near the base of the food chain on plankton, often by filter feeding...

are scarce, stock adult bluegill or redear sunfish (7 to 8 inches long). These fish will be too large to be eaten by the bass. The large panfish will spawn in the spring and produce a supply
of forage. http://www.dfg.ca.gov/fishing/assets/documents/InfoLeaflets/No_23.pdf

Other species

Black bass should not be confused with a multitude of unrelated fish species found around the world and called "bass", such as the butterfly Peacock Bass

Peacock Bass

Peacock bass is the common name in English for a group of closely related species of tropical, freshwater fish of the genus Cichla, native to the Amazon River basin of South America. They also inhabit the waters of Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela and parts of the United States,...

(Cichla ocellaris), speckled Peacock bass (Cichla temensis), Papuan Black Bass (Lutjanus goldiei) (also called Niugini bass), Australian bass

Australian bass

Australian bass are a small to medium sized, primarily freshwater native fish found in coastal rivers and streams along the east coast of Australia. They are a member of the Percichthyidae family and, currently, the Macquaria genus. Australian bass are an iconic, highly predatory native fish...

, Rock bass

Rock bass

The rock bass , also known as the rock perch, goggle-eye, or red eye is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. They are similar in appearance to smallmouth bass but are usually quite a bit smaller...

(Ambloplites rupestris), American Striped Bass, and British sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax).

Competition

There are several major bass fishing competitions in the United States with the two most dominant circuit being Bassmasters and the FLW series.

The Bassmaster Tournament Trail is organized by the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.). It was started by Ray Scott

Ray Scott (angler)

Ray Scott is a American outdoorsman who founded Bass Anglers Sportsman Society in 1967 after a vision of “building the sport of bass fishing to its rightful place in the first rank of American sports.” As the "godfather" of modern bass fishing, he created the first national bass tournament trail...

, the "father" of competitive bass fishing. First held in 1969, today, professionals like Michael Iaconelli

Michael Iaconelli

Michael Iaconelli is a professional bass fisherman from Runnemede, New Jersey United States. He has 3 children, Drew, Riley and Vegas. Iaconelli is best known for his trademark scream when he lands a big fish.-Early career:...

, Kevin VanDam

Kevin VanDam

Kevin VanDam , often called simply "KVD," is a professional bass fisherman from Kalamazoo, Michigan. He is the all-time money winner in professional bass fishing, having earned more than $5.6 million through August 2011...

, Aaron Martens, Rick Clunn

Rick Clunn

Rick Clunn is a professional bass fisherman from Ava, Missouri. He has won 4 Bassmaster Classic. More than any other angler except for Kevin VanDam, who also has 4 Classics under his belt. Clunn is considered one of the best anglers of all time and has over 100 top ten appearances and has won 17...

, and Luke Clausen

Luke Clausen

Luke Clausen of the Spokane Valley is a professional fisherman. Clausen won the 36th Citgo Bassmaster Classic held on Lake Tohopekaliga in central Florida, from February 23–26, 2006.-References:...

are household names to many American sports fans. There are 12 events in which the top 50 anglers compete. The top prize in the Bassmaster Classic

Bassmaster Classic

The Bassmaster Classic is a competition in professional bass fishing. It was first held in 1971 on Lake Mead, Nevada. Originally it was a fall event , but it switched to the summer in 1984 and then to the late winter in 2006...

is $500,000.

The Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

FLW Tour was named after Forrest L. Wood

Forrest L. Wood

Forrest L. Wood is the founder of Ranger Boats, and widely acknowledged as the developer of the modern bass boat. He is also the namesake of the Walmart FLW Tour for sportfishing....

of Ranger Boats

Ranger Boats

Ranger Boats are a popular line of bass fishing boats designed primarily for blackbass fishing. The company was founded in 1968 by Forrest L. Wood in Flippin, Arkansas. Ranger is generally credited with the introduction of the modern bass boat....

fame. The top prize of the Forrest Wood Cup is $1 Million. Both tours are nationally televised on networks like ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

and Fox Sports Net

Fox Sports Net

The Fox Sports Regional Networks, or simply Fox Sports Net , are a collection of cable TV regional sports networks in the United States owned and operated by News Corporation.- Beginnings :...

(ESPN actually owns and operates B.A.S.S.), and covered extensively by news media

News media

The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

.

On the West Coast, WON BASS has been the main regional circuit in operation since the 1980s Annually, WON BASS conducts the U.S. Open of Bass Fishing at Lake Mead, Nevada which annually pays back nearly $500,000 per event. This is a test of both angling skill and endurance as the anglers compete for 3 days in the scorching hot sun and windy conditions of the Mohave desert. Renowned anglers Ricky Clunn, Byron Velvick, Aaron Martens, and Gary Klein have all been crowned champions during the Open's 25 year history

In modern bass fishing competitions, caught bass are placed in a live well, and released as soon as caught and weighed by officials. Competitors are penalized heavily for dead fish and in some cases dead fish are not weighed. Fish turned in for weighing are immediately released or placed in tanks and treated for stress and glyco-protein (slime coat) injury, then released back into the water.

Competitive bass fishing has also spread to anglers in other countries such as Japan

Japan

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

and South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. Takahiro Omori, a Japanese angler living in Texas, won the 2004 Bassmaster Classic title. Australian tournaments are based on a native freshwater fish called Australian bass

Australian bass

that is unrelated to largemouth bass.

External links

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