Overview
Smallmouth bass are a popular sport fish in the United States. State fish and wildlife agencies conserve smallmouth habitat, install nesting cover in their habitat, stock fish, and regulate harvest. Adult smallmouth bass live in shallow rocky areas of lakes and in the clear and gravel bottom runs and flowing pools of rivers.
Scientific Name
Identification Numbers
Characteristics
Habitat
Adult smallmouth bass live in shallow rocky areas of lakes and in the clear and gravel bottom runs and flowing pools of rivers. They also live in cool flowing streams and reservoirs fed by these types of streams.
Physical Characteristics
The length of smallmouth bass most commonly caught is between 12 and 16 in . The maximum recorded length for a smallmouth bass is 27.2 in. Generally, male smallmouth bass are smaller than female smallmouth bass.
The heaviest smallmouth bass reached 11 pounds 15 ounces caught in Tennessee’s Dale Hollow Lake.
Life Cycle
Male smallmouth bass build spawning nests in the shallow waters of lakes and rivers on rocky bottoms. Males coax gravid females to the nest, often set near a boulder or beneath overhanging vegetation, which affords some level of protection from stream flow, predators and competing suitors. The polygamous spawning occurs in episodes that last less than a minute but courting may go on for hours.
Males stridently guard the nest and his offspring. After hatching, distinct jet-black fry hover above the guarding male for several days.
Food
Adult smallmouth bass live in shallow rocky areas of lakes and in the clear and gravel bottom runs and flowing pools of rivers. They also live in cool flowing streams and reservoirs fed by these types of streams.
Behavior
Young smallmouth bass feed on plankton and immature aquatic insects. Smallmouth bass are also known to be cannibalistic. Adult smallmouth bass feed on crayfish, fish and aquatic and terrestrial insects, birds and mice, and salamanders.
Geography
The range of smallmouth bass in North America includes the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Great Lakes systems and Hudson Bay. Their range extends from southern Quebec in Canada to North Dakota and south to northern Alabama and eastern Oklahoma within the U.S. They are also present in the drainages of the Mississippi river basins. Smallmouth bass have also been introduced into England, Europe, Japan, Russia and into Africa.