A Largemouth acting like a smallmouth 2024
Gundog reply :
Back many years ago I fished a local lake. To call it a lake is a stretch, to some it would be a large pond. If you stand on the shore of the narrowest part you can cast half way across the lake. Its also not a very deep lake. Its illegal to take a boat on it so I don't know how deep it is exactly but, from dragging lures across the bottom, I would say its no more than 10 ft at its deepest. It was always a trout stocked lake (put & take) but decades ago someone put some largemouth bass in there and they reproduced and became fat and health. About 10 yrs ago a friend who also fishes the lake told me he saw smallmouth bass in the lake. I thought he was nutty. In my defense, my friend once told me that he believed there was a carburetor that could get 100 miles to the gallon and the government had the patent and wouldn't allow it to be produced. So I had reason to be skeptical of what he said he saw. Anyway, after fishing there one day I hooked a nice largemouth and as I was bringing it in I notice a smallmouth following it. We who have fished for smallmouth know this is nothing unusual. But what was unusual was the largemouth behind the smallmouth following the largemouth I had hooked. When I got the largemouth to the shore both the SMB and LMB scattered. After apologizing to my friend for not believing him, I remember mentioning to him that I had seen SMB follow other SMB that were hooked but never seen the same from LMB. Did the LMB take on the characteristics of the SMB? If so why? Has anybody else seen similar behavior in SMB and LMB together? Has anybody seen both species together in a non-aquarium type setting?
soflabasser reply :
This reminds me of how I see largemouth bass and peacock bass schooling together while they are looking for fish to eat around the shoreline. Both these fish are completely different species and not even in the same family yet they school up together to hunt fish.As for largemouth and smallmouth bass, they are both in the sunfish family and different species of sunfish are often found together. Have caught smallmouth bass and largemouth bass in the same body of water so I am sure they often cross paths or form schools together when they are hunting their prey.
WRB reply :
You ever watch MLF when they fish northern lakes with both LMB and Smallmouth bass populations? It's common for the contestants to catch both species from the same spot on back to back casts!
Tom
Scott F reply :
I regularly catch smallmouth and largemouth from the same spots at the same time. Where I get them, there is almost always a combination of rocks and weeds that hold both species.
Way north bass guy reply :
My experiences are very similar to Scott F’s. Lots of lakes up here with both species in them, and you can often get both in the same spot, especially if there’s either weeds or wood mixed with rock or gravel areas. Also, on Georgian Bay where I fish a lot, in the dead heat of summer you can find some absolute pig smallies in a few feet of water and thick weedbeds acting like largemouth.
JigMaster4 reply :
I was fishing saturday, caught a LMB, SMB and spot all within about 20 feet of each other. They were stacked on a rock.
MIbassyaker reply :
Yup -- On one of my favorite waters, my LM and SM pb from that place were caught at the exact same spot (a weedline bordering the channel in a dam backwater) on subsequent days.
Gundog reply :
Have any of you seen largemouths following smallmouths in when you caught a smallmouth? To me that was odd behavior. I've never hooked a LMB and had other LMB follow in like SMB do commonly.
Pro Logcatcher reply :
I've had spots follow largemouth and vice versa. I don't know if that is uncommon or not but I have never had a smallie follower.
deep reply :
No idea how smallmouths are supposed to act, but I have watched plenty of largemouths follow other hooked fish to the boat/ shore...
TnRiver46 reply :
I have had a few largemouth, a couple of them pretty big ones, follow in a hooked smallmouth. They are just eating what the hooked fish is vomiting up, fish are ruthless and hungry
WRB reply :
A-rigs often catch multiple bass of the same species and big swimbaits with multiple hooks caught 2 big LMB occasionally. I haven't witnessed multiple mixed LMB and smallmouth bass caught on 1 lure but it's possible.
The misconception maybe anglers that fish the bank often catch a single bass near cover and don't believe or have experience with bass that often school in groups to feed on baitfish in lieu of hunting as individuals. It's common for Smallmouth and spotted bass to hunt in groups, LMB also group up in lakes with pelagic bait fish because thier success rate go up.
Maybe the OP doesn't have a lot of experience with lakes with multiple bass species.
Tom
Cak920 reply :
I would guess in a small lake or pond a bass will be a bass regardless of type
LxVE Bassin reply :
Ive read that largemouth bass school with stripers on blueback herrings lakes.
Gundog reply :
On 3/28/2018 at 12:28 AM, WRB said:
Maybe the OP doesn't have a lot of experience with lakes with multiple bass species.
Tom
You're right Tom. Most of the lakes/rivers I fish have predominately either SMB or LMB. I've heard of LMB grouping up but only from pro anglers on t.v. Never actually witnessed it.
B-Dozer reply :
Maybe he just identifies as a smallmouth?
Gundog reply :
The Caitlyn Jenner of the bass world 
B-Dozer reply :
On 3/28/2018 at 11:50 AM, Gundog said:The Caitlyn Jenner of the bass world
sumthin fishy goin on here
38 Super Fan reply :
It's common for them to hang together around here. Here's a LMB SMB double I caught from last year.
38 Super Fan reply :
On 3/28/2018 at 8:00 AM, LxVE Bassin said:Ive read that largemouth bass school with stripers on blueback herrings lakes.
I've seen that on my local lakes, and they're not herring lakes. Last year my Dad was fishing with me and he hooked up (and eventually landed) a 20 pound Striper that was breaking threadfin on top. I immediately casted to the same area and caught a little 10 inch spotted bass.
WRB reply :
On 3/28/2018 at 12:18 PM, 38 Super Fan said:
It's common for them to hang together around here. Here's a LMB SMB double I caught from last year.
Proof!
Tom
CroakHunter reply :
On 3/28/2018 at 12:18 PM, 38 Super Fan said:
It's common for them to hang together around here. Here's a LMB SMB double I caught from last year.
Now that's cool!
Bluebasser86 reply :
It happens often in the lakes I fish where they both live. A few years ago I was night fishing one and caught a 3 1/4lb smallmouth and 4.5lb largemouth on back to back cast to the same dock corner on the same jig.
sully420 reply :
Ive seen largemouth bass wolf pack with northern pike and smallmouth so im not supprised at all that people are catching and seeing sm and lm schooling
Way north bass guy reply :
Last spring on Georgian Bay I caught a smallie about 3lbs off a fallen tree in a foot of water, next cast to the same tree was a pike about 30” long and on the third cast was a rainbow trout about 2lbs. I’ve never seen anything like that before, except maybe in the bass pro shops aquarium ????.
soflabasser reply :
On 3/28/2018 at 12:18 PM, 38 Super Fan said:
It's common for them to hang together around here. Here's a LMB SMB double I caught from last year.
Nice double. I have caught a double of peacock and largemouth or largemouth and warmouth while fishing with jerkbaits in South Florida. Jerkbaits are one of my favorite lures for active bass.
NorthwestBasser reply :
Last spring, cranking a rock pile in about 6 fow. Hooked a 3½lb LMB, very next cast, exact same spot, hooked a 3½lb SMB. I broke up a turf war... Haha.
When I'm targeting smallies, I ALWAYS retrieve my lure parallel to the bank. This is because once I find and pattern the fish at a certain depth I want the fish to stay there. I've noticed with the smallies, if I fish perpendicular to the bank I can inadvertently pull the whole school off the depth zone they were sitting in when they follow the hooked fish out. They are definitely followers and I haven't had the same issues with largies
MountainMan83 reply :
I've caught LM and SM off the same beaver pile on a topwater frog. I saw a 5-6lb pike yesterday, swim right in front of me next to the bank, with what I could only identify as a walleye. They were distinctly different.
bigbassin' reply :
I've had largemouth follow other largemouth in before. It hasn't happened very often, but when it has the follower has always been in the 5+ pound class while the one I have hooked is around 12 inches. My assumption is that the bigger fish viewed the smaller one as a meal.
Paul Roberts reply :
I've seen SM act like LM -sortof. Had a pond with both in it. It was heavily vegetated around the perimeter with open water in the middle. Smallies hunted under the slop along shorelines like the LM's. Caught SM up to 19" on frogs.
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