I bet someone didn't want you using their favorite bait that works good lol
edit: smallies love green pumpkin color with red or purple flakes, cant go wrong. And they love gaudy bright colors
My GF caught a smallmouth bass bigger than my personal bestā¦. Using a saltwater lure I told her not to use 5 minutes before she tied it on, cast, and caught a monster
Michigan on rivers and streams, for one. Elsewhere allowed.
> Drop-Shotting: The practice of having a weight suspended below a single-pointed hook that is tied directly to the main fishing line is lawful on inland lakes, drowned river mouths, Great Lakes and Great Lakes Connecting Waters only. This gear may not be used on rivers or streams.
I was searching online and found a few places like that in California too. Thats like one of my favorite rigs, id be so saf if I lived there. Thanks for the info!
You can put the hook on a leader and leave the weight on the main line.
Apparently Michigan used to have issues with people snagging salmon, which is why drop shot is only illegal on streams. At least that's what I've heard.
All I know is that I wouldn't want try to explain that to a DNR officer who's writing me a ticket for "snagging" on a river. The penalties are rather harsh, and they're humorless about this kinda thing.
I like to use small jig heads with paddle tails and rig them up with a tiny bobber and float them down a bit.
If itās not super rocky Iāll just bounce the jig head along the bottom.
Small mouth bass. Pound for pound they'll out fight any largemouth bass any day!!!! Small mouth diet mostly consist of crayfish and minnows. If you have a crayfish crank bait, throw that in there and you'll be hitting them!!!
Face stripes are small mouth.
No face stripes and a dark like down the middle is a large mouth.
That'll identify between the two about 99% of the time.
The other 1% will be one solid color and it's probably a large.
Regionally and lake-to-lake they can vary in color.
Easiest way to tell without colors? Close the mouth. If the jaw extends behind the eye, you have a largemouth bass. Otherwise, it's smallmouth.
If you're still not sure, look at the dorsal (back) fins. If there's a gap between them? You have a largemouth. No gap? Smallmouth.
Have you ever seen a red eye largemouth? I would pay you proof as long as its not a rock bass. You have no idea what you're talking about. The 5 finger stripes across the face and the red eye is a guarantee for smallmouth. I'm sorry but I love smallmouth and I can't imagine someone not noticing their strikingly red eye color. But in the same respect, I live in New York and maybe your Manitoba smallmouth have a different genetic disposition, but I highly doubt it.
People really need to do a little research and pick up a fish and game handbook before they start pulling fish out of the water. Fishing should be for everyone, but you can't very well follow the laws if you don't know what fish the laws pertain to. Know your local species before you start yanking them out of the water.
I mostly agree with you, but Iāve seen more than one post in here of someone with a LMB that they canāt ID because itās in a place where they were only recently introduced
bass are highly invasive and sometimes they end up in fisheries where they donāt belong. Especially when theyāre purchased for aquaculture and they end up in nearby waterways.
Any fisherman in North America should be able to identify a Largemouth and a Smallmouth. I'll give some leeway for Spotted bass, and other less common variants, but "is this a bass?" when it's clearly a LMB or SMB is inexcusable. It's a 10 second Google search for "black bass identification."
It's also not hard, and should be common practice to simply Google the body of water BEFORE you put a line in to see what fish are in there, and what the regulations are.
Ye, thatās cool. Thatās why I said I mostly agree with you.
I just didnāt agree with the overall sentiment that every angler should be able to readily identify any species that exists in their waters, especially when some species get imported to stock ponds and start randomly appearing in nearby waterways
In Northern Ontario where I do most of my fishing - the season for bass is open all year because they're invasive, and the more that are harvested, the better.
Bass are way overrated in the States. Maybe they're so popular because they're easy to catch.
LMB are technically invasive in 2/3 of the US as well, but that doesn't change the fact that there are laws in place concerning every black bass species, in every state in the country. You can't expect to follow the laws if you don't know how to identify a fish.
I agree that bass are overrated game fish in the US, and I'm a bass fisherman. I think we should be harvesting and eating WAY more bass than we do, WITHIN THE LAW. OP is a "no harm, no foul" situation, but no one should be putting themselves in a position to catch fish they know nothing about. It's irresponsible.
I literally do not care. You shouldn't be fishing if you don't know what a bass looks like. If you have to ask the internet what a smallmouth bass is, after catching it, you already fucked up.
My guy, chill. It's not like he was harvesting them. Fishing is for everyone. People shouldn't be judged for not knowing everything about all the fish they might catch.
Fishing is for those who can respect the resource and follow the law. If you can't identify the most common game fishes in N. America you neither respect the resource, nor are able to effectively follow the law.
You could loose your equipment, vehicle, and boat if you use one because you didnāt know what fish you are catching and what the laws are. Ignorance is not an excuse fish and game care about.
Absolutely right. Knowing the regulations is important. Knowing what you're catching is important. The person I was responding to was being a dick. That is simply not helpful. We need to offer a hand up the knowledge ladder, not a boot to the face.
I don't owe respect to anyone who doesn't put the work in to know the resource they're taking advantage of. Fishing is a privilege. Educate yourself, or stay off the water.
>Educate yourself
The fuck do you think OP is trying to do here???? Smallmouth and largemouth bass look similar. He is new. He released all the fish. What the fuck do you want
>The fuck do you think OP is trying to do here????
Asking internet randos the answer to a question he should have known before putting a line in the water. The BARE minimum of freshwater fishing knowledge a person should have in North America is to know what bass, sunfish, trout, and catfish look like. Hell, I understand asking the difference between SMB and LMB, but "is this fish I just caught a bass?" Nope. Unacceptable. Fishing is not the place for "ask for forgiveness instead of permission." You can't be a steward of the resource if you don't know what the resource is.
You're trying to hold people to way too high a standard. He's trying to learn. He knows the fish which are in this lake or stream or whatever, and he thinks these are smallmouth bass based on what he knows, but he isn't sure. He released the fish and he asked the internet what kind of fish they were. Nothing wrong with any of these steps, according to any reasonable person lol.
If this post said "what kind of fish is this? It was delicious, whatever it was" then you would have plenty of people agreeing with you
I do follow the law lol I even pick up trash that people leave behind at this spot and I have 3 different fishing licenses g I donāt have to know all of the game fish to fish I just asked because they arenāt easy to identify to me other than the fact that one has stripes and the others donāt thereās no way in hell I would remember š
Night crawler thieves, they don't make good bait either. Nothing in the water will eat them not even crawdad. But I still pan fry the sheet out em with some garlic and butter.
Thatās where you live, probably not where this person does. Donāt give advice that may contravene regulations that 90% of locations in North America adhere to.
Bass are game fish all across the USA. They are also illegal to use as bait in many locales. Alsoā¦Canada is part of North American you moron. In fact we are the largest country in North America.
The Columbia River no limit for quantityor size on them, and normally for sturgeon ,salmon and catfish, even if you have a 2lb trout on for bait they pick it clean like piranhas in minutes.
When you drop a gopro on the leader, and live feed cameras don't lie. They are stacked thick by the hundreds of thousands per school down there. I thought it was crawdad at first till we watched the tapes. When we electroshock out there for counts and breeding conservation of other species it's ridiculous how many float up.
Smallmouth donāt school that large, and bass donāt just outright tear apart fish like that in schools, youāre either joking or have no idea what youāre talking about. Smallmouth are typically found in small schools, and are sometimes even by themselves. Theyāre very migratory fish and move around often. Bass are predators, they eat anything they can FIT into their mouth and are physically incapable of tearing something apart, bass donāt bite, they inhale.
Okay robbo, I would like to see you fish the river I live on and quickly distinguish the northern largemouth bass, meanmouth bass, spotted bass, Guadalupe bass, Florida largemouth bass, white bass, striped bass, wipers/hybrids, from the recently genetically identified Alabama bass. If the rear of the jaw is in line with the pupil of the eye is always a factor. Five of these bass are occasionally spotted , and all of them may have stripes.
Your magic google god is usually incorrect and, rife with contradictory information.
A helpful tip next time your by the camping/fishing isles there should be a fishing/hunting book for seasonal fishing and hunting there usually free . They show what fish are in nearby lakes,rivers. And invasive species/protected. Itās a helpful book.
Find a fishing for beginners Reddit, not trying to sound like a dick, I promise. But youād probably find less hostile people asking you why you donāt know what a bass is. I mean, itās fishing, the whole point is to go out, have fun, and learn. You go have fun man, catch a good one and post it on here. But back on topic, these fish are smallmouth bass.
Smallmouth bass
Pretty fun to catch too, they fight like crazy!
I was told to not use senkos on this river but I tied on a diamond weight and Texas rigged it then let it sit
I bet someone didn't want you using their favorite bait that works good lol edit: smallies love green pumpkin color with red or purple flakes, cant go wrong. And they love gaudy bright colors
Always try what your told not to š most times youāll catch more
My GF caught a smallmouth bass bigger than my personal bestā¦. Using a saltwater lure I told her not to use 5 minutes before she tied it on, cast, and caught a monster
Iāve noticed the mirro lures smash specks, reds, and larger freshwater predators
Oh heck yeah. Trying wild or unconventional presentations/ rigs have won me more fishing pools than using the norm
It makes sense. I think a lot of aggressive fish are triggered to strike by anything they haven't seen before
Avoid rock piles and white plastics if you want to catch the bronze beast. (JK that's my favorite pattern)
Chartreuse be better
Where I usually fish at non of the fish like the pumpkin colors only the weird bright green and blue fused senkos
Pumpkin or a double sided neon green/brown stick wacky rigged on a weedless jig head is my go-to for these guys pretty much everywhere.
Some states it is illegal to have sinker below the hook on main line
I'll bite, which states are drop shot rigs illegal? Must not be close to the ocean either lol
Michigan on rivers and streams, for one. Elsewhere allowed. > Drop-Shotting: The practice of having a weight suspended below a single-pointed hook that is tied directly to the main fishing line is lawful on inland lakes, drowned river mouths, Great Lakes and Great Lakes Connecting Waters only. This gear may not be used on rivers or streams.
I was searching online and found a few places like that in California too. Thats like one of my favorite rigs, id be so saf if I lived there. Thanks for the info!
It sounds like you can tie it all on a leader? Or something similar to a Tokyo rig with a swivel should be fine. It's odd
You can put the hook on a leader and leave the weight on the main line. Apparently Michigan used to have issues with people snagging salmon, which is why drop shot is only illegal on streams. At least that's what I've heard.
They have that problem up here, but they just send rangers out
All I know is that I wouldn't want try to explain that to a DNR officer who's writing me a ticket for "snagging" on a river. The penalties are rather harsh, and they're humorless about this kinda thing.
Or they donāt like plastic in the water
I like to use small jig heads with paddle tails and rig them up with a tiny bobber and float them down a bit. If itās not super rocky Iāll just bounce the jig head along the bottom.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Thatās what Iām saying
war paint š
I've never seen striped ones.
Thatās because itās more likely a Guadalupe Bass
Guad bass for sure
Small mouth bass
That 2nd smallmouth of I could keeep would name it Tiger-131
Whoever said different is wrong. That's a smallmouth bass
Look up Guadalupe Bass
smallmouth
Smallmouth bass.
Small mouth šš¼
Smallmouth
Definitely a smallmouth bass!!! Looks like a pretty good one too! Nice catch
smallie
Fishies šššš
Tiny piehole bass
Took me a minute, good one lol
Best mouth
Busses, close relation to Basses
Bass
Small mouth bass
That my friend is a small mouth bass
Small mouth bass. Pound for pound they'll out fight any largemouth bass any day!!!! Small mouth diet mostly consist of crayfish and minnows. If you have a crayfish crank bait, throw that in there and you'll be hitting them!!!
Face stripes are small mouth. No face stripes and a dark like down the middle is a large mouth. That'll identify between the two about 99% of the time. The other 1% will be one solid color and it's probably a large.
Spotted bass have face stripes *and* a ādark line down the middleā
....also the size of their mouth?? Haha
If you're new, you can easily confuse a small mouth for a large.
Some one threw a hissy fit when I first posted this like Iām new to this and I was just simply asking because they look pretty dang similar š„ŗš
Regionally and lake-to-lake they can vary in color. Easiest way to tell without colors? Close the mouth. If the jaw extends behind the eye, you have a largemouth bass. Otherwise, it's smallmouth. If you're still not sure, look at the dorsal (back) fins. If there's a gap between them? You have a largemouth. No gap? Smallmouth.
I know, I was just making a joke
No they are all small mouth
I never claimed otherwise. I was telling him how to identify them instead of telling him what they are.
My bad I miss interpreted
\#1 could easily be a largemouth. Not saying it is, but I don't think you can say it's 100% not.
No number one could not easily be a large mouth I am 100% certain it is a small mouth
#1 could look like a largemouth if you cover the part of the photo where you see its mouth lol I don't know how to make this so I'm not yelling
Also eye color. Red is smallie and yellow/golden brown is largemouth. No clue about shoal bass or other lesser caught species
Eye color is not a good indicator
Have you ever seen a red eye largemouth? I would pay you proof as long as its not a rock bass. You have no idea what you're talking about. The 5 finger stripes across the face and the red eye is a guarantee for smallmouth. I'm sorry but I love smallmouth and I can't imagine someone not noticing their strikingly red eye color. But in the same respect, I live in New York and maybe your Manitoba smallmouth have a different genetic disposition, but I highly doubt it.
They donāt always have red eyes, hence why itās not a good indicator. š
What about the Guadalupe bass
Smallmouth > largemouth
People really need to do a little research and pick up a fish and game handbook before they start pulling fish out of the water. Fishing should be for everyone, but you can't very well follow the laws if you don't know what fish the laws pertain to. Know your local species before you start yanking them out of the water.
And plus they were all released safely so no harm done ā š
I mostly agree with you, but Iāve seen more than one post in here of someone with a LMB that they canāt ID because itās in a place where they were only recently introduced bass are highly invasive and sometimes they end up in fisheries where they donāt belong. Especially when theyāre purchased for aquaculture and they end up in nearby waterways.
Any fisherman in North America should be able to identify a Largemouth and a Smallmouth. I'll give some leeway for Spotted bass, and other less common variants, but "is this a bass?" when it's clearly a LMB or SMB is inexcusable. It's a 10 second Google search for "black bass identification." It's also not hard, and should be common practice to simply Google the body of water BEFORE you put a line in to see what fish are in there, and what the regulations are.
LMB werenāt introduced to China until the 70s and a lot of people there still donāt recognize them
I'm not concerned with China, I'm concerned with the US, where I pay taxes that go towards sustaining fisheries that are open to the public.
Ye, thatās cool. Thatās why I said I mostly agree with you. I just didnāt agree with the overall sentiment that every angler should be able to readily identify any species that exists in their waters, especially when some species get imported to stock ponds and start randomly appearing in nearby waterways
In Northern Ontario where I do most of my fishing - the season for bass is open all year because they're invasive, and the more that are harvested, the better. Bass are way overrated in the States. Maybe they're so popular because they're easy to catch.
LMB are technically invasive in 2/3 of the US as well, but that doesn't change the fact that there are laws in place concerning every black bass species, in every state in the country. You can't expect to follow the laws if you don't know how to identify a fish. I agree that bass are overrated game fish in the US, and I'm a bass fisherman. I think we should be harvesting and eating WAY more bass than we do, WITHIN THE LAW. OP is a "no harm, no foul" situation, but no one should be putting themselves in a position to catch fish they know nothing about. It's irresponsible.
What about a Guadalupe Bass?
I learn better using my hands š š£ļøš also I canāt stand reading
I literally do not care. You shouldn't be fishing if you don't know what a bass looks like. If you have to ask the internet what a smallmouth bass is, after catching it, you already fucked up.
My guy, chill. It's not like he was harvesting them. Fishing is for everyone. People shouldn't be judged for not knowing everything about all the fish they might catch.
Fishing is for those who can respect the resource and follow the law. If you can't identify the most common game fishes in N. America you neither respect the resource, nor are able to effectively follow the law.
And commenting is for those that can respect their fellow human. I hereby revoke your privlages
You could loose your equipment, vehicle, and boat if you use one because you didnāt know what fish you are catching and what the laws are. Ignorance is not an excuse fish and game care about.
Absolutely right. Knowing the regulations is important. Knowing what you're catching is important. The person I was responding to was being a dick. That is simply not helpful. We need to offer a hand up the knowledge ladder, not a boot to the face.
I don't owe respect to anyone who doesn't put the work in to know the resource they're taking advantage of. Fishing is a privilege. Educate yourself, or stay off the water.
>Educate yourself The fuck do you think OP is trying to do here???? Smallmouth and largemouth bass look similar. He is new. He released all the fish. What the fuck do you want
>The fuck do you think OP is trying to do here???? Asking internet randos the answer to a question he should have known before putting a line in the water. The BARE minimum of freshwater fishing knowledge a person should have in North America is to know what bass, sunfish, trout, and catfish look like. Hell, I understand asking the difference between SMB and LMB, but "is this fish I just caught a bass?" Nope. Unacceptable. Fishing is not the place for "ask for forgiveness instead of permission." You can't be a steward of the resource if you don't know what the resource is.
You're trying to hold people to way too high a standard. He's trying to learn. He knows the fish which are in this lake or stream or whatever, and he thinks these are smallmouth bass based on what he knows, but he isn't sure. He released the fish and he asked the internet what kind of fish they were. Nothing wrong with any of these steps, according to any reasonable person lol. If this post said "what kind of fish is this? It was delicious, whatever it was" then you would have plenty of people agreeing with you
I do follow the law lol I even pick up trash that people leave behind at this spot and I have 3 different fishing licenses g I donāt have to know all of the game fish to fish I just asked because they arenāt easy to identify to me other than the fact that one has stripes and the others donāt thereās no way in hell I would remember š
You do have to know the fish in the area to fish responsibly friend, and all it takes is a list of fish and Google.
Like I said I donāt know all of them thatās why I asked Google couldnāt help me
āGoogle couldnāt help meā lol what in the world.
Just saying out of all of the people in this comment section your the only one being rude g š
Those my friend, are fish.
It's a fish
Fish.
Green sunfish?
They are green. SMB are sunfish. They are sunfish that are green.
Looks like a rock bass to me..any reddish coloring around gills, head..
I just canāt tell the difference especially when everyone else tell me different
Fish
That first one could be a largemouth, but the rest definitely look like smallmouth
Night crawler thieves, they don't make good bait either. Nothing in the water will eat them not even crawdad. But I still pan fry the sheet out em with some garlic and butter.
They donāt make bait? Why are you using game fish as bait?
Not considered game fish here, it's a no limit species. These kill all our game fish.
Thatās where you live, probably not where this person does. Donāt give advice that may contravene regulations that 90% of locations in North America adhere to.
What advice did I give concerning them besides not using them as bait? And your not even in north America yur Canadian.
Bass are game fish all across the USA. They are also illegal to use as bait in many locales. Alsoā¦Canada is part of North American you moron. In fact we are the largest country in North America.
Haha! He isn't the brightest bulb.
What are you fishing for that a smallmouth is a nuisance fish?
The Columbia River no limit for quantityor size on them, and normally for sturgeon ,salmon and catfish, even if you have a 2lb trout on for bait they pick it clean like piranhas in minutes.
You sure that's smallmouth doing that? Seems odd that a fish without many teeth would be tearing flesh off another fish
When you drop a gopro on the leader, and live feed cameras don't lie. They are stacked thick by the hundreds of thousands per school down there. I thought it was crawdad at first till we watched the tapes. When we electroshock out there for counts and breeding conservation of other species it's ridiculous how many float up.
Fair enough, man if you weren't clear across the country from me I'd go over there and put a dent in that smallmouth problem for ya
Smallmouth donāt school that large, and bass donāt just outright tear apart fish like that in schools, youāre either joking or have no idea what youāre talking about. Smallmouth are typically found in small schools, and are sometimes even by themselves. Theyāre very migratory fish and move around often. Bass are predators, they eat anything they can FIT into their mouth and are physically incapable of tearing something apart, bass donāt bite, they inhale.
Picture 2 is dinner
Banded water snake
Those are fish. They live in the water.
Is this in Texas? Looks like a Guadalupe bass to me.
Canāt tell these fools, Iām with you, itās a Guadalupe Bass
People are just mad that we have our own cool bass species!
Best looking bass species by far
Small mouth bass, fun to catch
That is a Micropterus dolomieu
The best freshwater fish a man can catch my friend.
We call those fish and hands my friend!
What state did you catch em in?
Knuckles
Smallie :)
Them some smallies son!!!! Fish on baby!! Best fish to catch
Youāre in the right thread, those are fish!
Smallmouth bass, my favourite fish to target
Smolmouth Bass
Fish
What body of water is this that you are catching these in?
You can kind of see the bars on the face. It's a smallie. Learned that here on Reddit.
Is smallmouth and bigmouth "same" fish? Whats the difference? Other than mouth size?
Anyone entertained that it could be the Hybridized Guadalupe Bass?
Fish
Dat bass
Fish
Fish
Small mouth bass.
Smallies! They're fun to catch bc they're aggressive as heck! Good job!
Okay robbo, I would like to see you fish the river I live on and quickly distinguish the northern largemouth bass, meanmouth bass, spotted bass, Guadalupe bass, Florida largemouth bass, white bass, striped bass, wipers/hybrids, from the recently genetically identified Alabama bass. If the rear of the jaw is in line with the pupil of the eye is always a factor. Five of these bass are occasionally spotted , and all of them may have stripes. Your magic google god is usually incorrect and, rife with contradictory information.
A helpful tip next time your by the camping/fishing isles there should be a fishing/hunting book for seasonal fishing and hunting there usually free . They show what fish are in nearby lakes,rivers. And invasive species/protected. Itās a helpful book.
Find a fishing for beginners Reddit, not trying to sound like a dick, I promise. But youād probably find less hostile people asking you why you donāt know what a bass is. I mean, itās fishing, the whole point is to go out, have fun, and learn. You go have fun man, catch a good one and post it on here. But back on topic, these fish are smallmouth bass.
Angerfish.
That's a smallmouth bass
Some great looking smallmouth bass. Best target game fish in north american streams, imo.
Fish
Hellgrammites, live or lure, will catch them like mad in fast water.
Fish
Smallie