How many times have you caught a largemouth bass in the middle of the day? Probably not a lot because, like most fish, largemouth feed early and late in the day. Fish are cold blooded, so when the sun gets high they go to the bottom of the river or lake to keep cool. When the sun goes down the fish come up to feed. Have you ever been told not to swim in the ocean early in the morning or late at night, because sharks feed at those times? Well, like sharks, bass are predatory fish, which means that, they feed at those times too. Largemouth bass like still water with lot of vegetation, in the low 70-degrees. In the spring they like being along shores with mud bottoms. When bass spawn the female drops her eggs and leaves the male to guard them. He will guard them until they hatch and are able to fend for themselves. Spawning time is one of the best times to fish because a male bass guarding a nest will strike at pretty much anything that swims by.
Every fisherman has asked himself “what bait shall I use”? Well largemouth are especially attracted to buzz bait, jigs, plugs and chuggers. You can also use soft plastic, such as ribbon tail worms, straight tailed worms, crawfish, frogs, minnows etc. I would use 12-14 pound line, and depending on the size fish you’re going for your rod size should vary. Some of the main supplies you should have in your tackle box are a rod and reel, hooks, bobbers, a net, a variety of different lures and maybe, if you want, a scale and thermometer.
When you identify a largemouth you should look for a big mouth, a paddle like tail and spiny rays in the in the dorsal fin. One of the ways to tell the difference between a smallmouth and a largemouth bass, which are almost identical, is the connection between the first and second dorsal fin is lower on a largemouth. There color is green with a bite of brown. One of the main ways to identify a largemouth is by the ruff green stripe from their gill to their tail.
The typical largemouth diet is mainly crawfish, frogs, small fish, larvae and insects of all kinds. But if they can’t find that on the menu, they will eat things like snakes, turtles, snails and even birds. So sometimes live bait is the way to go, if you’re using a frog hook it through the lower and upper jaw and cast near some lily pads, but be ready… bass love frogs. If you are using an insect such as a grasshopper hook it through the back of the neck to the mid wings and out.
Setting the hook is the most important part of catching a fish, when you feel a small tug don’t set just yet, wait for the weight of the fish and then jerk back and set the hook. When you catch a bass hold it by pinching it’s lower jaw, don’t worry about being bit largemouth have very small teeth. Hold the fish up high and show of your trophy catch. The world record largemouth bass was caught in Montgomery Lake, Georgia in 1932; it was 22 pounds, 4 ounces.
To kill a fish for filleting you can either knock it on the head or take your fillet knife and place the tip on the edge of the gill, then push down as hard as you possibly can through the fish, but be careful don’t bend the knife. To gut them for cooking whole, cut from the anus to the pelvic fin, take the guts out and dispose of them, then cook the fish. If you want to make fillets cut a slit down to the bone behind the pectoral fin, then cut a slit about an inch from the tail down to the bone. Cut from the first slit to the second, down the back along the bone down that cut until you come to the belly and then cut then cut the fillet of and repeat on the opposite side. Than cook the fish however you like. Now have fun fishing and i hope you catch a whopper.
