Bass Fishing

Bass fishing represents one of the most popular fishing sports practiced today. The bass family, including Striped, Largemouth, Smallmouth, Spotted, Black, and White, serve to initiate countless numbers of new anglers every season. This popularity has yielded a multi-billion dollar industry unto itself, aside from even the business of other modes of sport fishing. To illustrate this point further, there are boats on the market designed specifically for bass fishing.

Bass habitats include a variety of environments, from rivers, lakes, streams, and even ponds. Rivers provide one of the healthiest habitats, due to the highly oxygenated waters from the rapid current. Yet, it is important to understand that bass prefer to stay out of the major currents. In order to fish bass from rivers, it is best to seek out breaks in the current, perhaps from a fallen tree, a stump, or rocks. The fish that bass feed upon will normally school below a dam, thereby making these spots ideal for bass fishing.

There are countless techniques and types of tackle available to pursue the sport of bass fishing. For a beginner, it is advised to gather some more basic tools to get started. Some suggestions point towards acquiring a 10-pound line, suitable for the average sizes and weights of this species. Also, it is suggested to start with artificial bait until the angler has a better understanding of the unique characteristics of the bass fish. Spinnerbait is common artificial bait used by both amateur and seasoned anglers.

The catch and release method was first introduced in the 1950s. It was designed to reduce the rising costs of restocking hatchery-raised fish, and was normally used for fish not meant for consumption. Popular consensus does not consider bass as a food fish, and thus this technique is widely used.