Bass fishing in the USA. 2024
Richard Barrett reply :
As I live in the UK and sadly don't have access to bass as a species, I'm learning through reading and this site. Am I right in thinking that bass are both a indigenous species and stocked in the States? I've seen vast open lakes with folk fishing from lavish boats, then some guys on tiny ponds, others in creeks.
What is most done, fishing for stocked fish, or wild fishing. Are the wild fish within a particular range, like Northern pike?
Does anyone fish for perch as a sport species? I think you cal them red-fish?
Rich.
Steveo-1969 reply :
Welcome to Bass Resource Mr. Barrett! I'll start the replies though I'm sure there will be more (and better!) coming. Bass are both indigenous and stocked in the U.S. For example the range of smallmouth bass and Florida-strain largemouth has been expanded across the country substantially through stocking. Where they are stocked depends on climate and water temp. Generally smallmouth don't do well in warmer water and Florida-strain largemouth don't do well in colder water. I don't know if the range of northern-strain largemouth has been expanded through stocking or not.
As for perch, we have yellow perch and white perch though in some parts of the country any panfish might be called a "perch". A "redfish" or "red drum" is an inshore saltwater gamefish found along the East coast and Gulf coast of the U.S., it's not a freshwater fish.
We do have another member from the U.K who fishes here in the U.S. @Tim Kelly
Raul reply :
And on the 8 th day the AllMighty, said: "let there be bass fishing" .... and North America was created.
Wanna hear the good news ? we got Northern Bass strain ( ya know for those poor fellas that can only decently fish for bass part of the year bfrore freezing their rear end during the winter ) and Florida strain for us the southern folks that are blessed with warmer climates and can bass fish year round, that don't mean we don't have Northern strain too.
the reel ess reply :
They are indigenous, but they were not originally as widespread as they now are. They've been stocked across the nation and in HI. Here in the southeast US, they're pretty much everywhere fish are found.
J Francho reply :
So you're clear, the bass are often initially introduced to a new lake, and then time and nature do the rest. It isn't a "put and take" situation, like you see with trout.
WRB reply :
Some of the names and terms bass anglers use have nothing to do with proer English language making it difficult for anyone speaking the Qweens English.
Walleye are related to Zander, both in the perch family and called varuios local names.
Yellow Perch are not considered a game fish in most of the US, Walleyes are.
We have about 8 Black Bass species, Largemouth, Smallmouth and Spotted bass being the most popular and widest distributed and native to North America.
Welcome to the BR site, take a look at the International forum and PM Tim Kelly who lives in England.
Tom
IndianaFinesse reply :
On 10/11/2017 at 4:33 AM, WRB said:Some of the names and terms bass anglers use have nothing to do with proer English language making it difficult for anyone speaking the Qweens English.
Walleye are related to Zander, both in the perch family and called varuios local names.
Yellow Perch are not considered a game fish in most of the US, Walleyes are.
We have about 8 Black Bass species, Largemouth, Smallmouth and Spotted bass being the most popular and widest distributed and native to North America.
Welcome to the BR site, take a look at the International forum and PM Tim Kelly who lives in England.
Tom
I agree with the different slang names making it hard to communicate, but the bit about "yellow perch not being considered a game fish", apparently you have never been up to the nothern states such as Michigan, Minnesota etc. Perch are in the top three most targeted species, along with walleye and smallmouth. Through the ice they are the most targeted species up there.
WRB reply :
My wife is from MN and I have fish MN and Ontario Canada many times around Lake of the Woods region. None of the folks I knew considered perch a game fish, fish for table fare maybe if the perch were big enough, otherwise they were pest and became gull food. In England they have perch tournaments using maggots for bait, different types of fishing tackle and skill sets. Then there are Nile Perch, talk about jumbo's!
It's like comparing bass to bluegill, both are sunfish family. Try defining bream, in England it's a fish specie, in thecUS it's slang for various sunfish, bluegill and crappie.
Tom
J Francho reply :
Perch are classified as a game fish in NY. There is even a limit. They used to be a commercially harvested species prior to to that classification. Interestingly, largemouth were recently downgraded, allowing them to be farmed and sold as food. The issue we anglers had with that was how to know that the bass being sold weren't poached. At any rate, in this state the matter of classification ha more to do with the laws and not opinion. Personally, perch caught in cooler fall and winter seasons are one of my favorite fish to eat. Bass, not so much. Walleye are good any time of year. So are northern pike.
RPreeb reply :
On 10/11/2017 at 4:44 AM, IndianaFinesse said:I agree with the different slang names making it hard to communicate, but the bit about "yellow perch not being considered a game fish", apparently you have never been up to the nothern states such as Michigan, Minnesota etc. Perch are in the top three most targeted species, along with walleye and smallmouth. Through the ice they are the most targeted species up there.
I grew up in a few miles north of St. Paul, Minnesota, and in summers at Balsam Lake, Wisconsin in the 50's and early 60's and we always considered yellow perch as a trash fish - used to just break their necks and toss them up on shore for the scavengers. 
I know that people here in Colorado do fish for them at times. There is a general daily bag and possession limit in the eastern half of the state of 20 fish. I personally have never seen a perch here.
On 10/11/2017 at 4:57 AM, WRB said:My wife is from MN and I have fish MN and Ontario Canada many times around Lake of the Woods region. None of the folks I knew considered perch a game fish, fish for table fare maybe if the perch were big enough, otherwise they were pest and became gull food. In England they have perch tournaments using mag gets for bait, different types of fishing tackle and skill sets. Then there a Nile Perch, talk about jumbo's!
It's like comparing bass to bluegill, both are sunfish family. Try defining bream, in England it's a fish specie, in thecUS it's slang for various sunfish, bluegill and crappie.
Tom
When I joined this forum last spring I read a few posts mentioning "bream" or "brim" and thought it was a species that I'd never seen before. I had to look it up, and found out that it was a colloquial term for many members of the sunfish family, mostly limited to the southeast. Up in the northwoods country, we always called them by their individual names - sunfish, bluegill, pumpkinseed, etc. Bream is, however, an actual species in the UK.
TOXIC reply :
Don't forget that in the UK and many other places, the Carp is a gamefish!!
Vinjints reply :
On 10/11/2017 at 4:57 AM, WRB said:maybe if the perch were big enough, otherwise they were pest and became gull food.
On 10/11/2017 at 7:19 AM, RPreeb said:we always considered yellow perch as a trash fish - used to just break their necks and toss them up on shore for the scavengers.
What's the purpose of this? The high and mighty bass fishermen always practice the holy tradition of CPR - unless it's a perch. Then you catch it, kill it, and throw it away.
J Francho reply :
Just some old, backwards thinking. Perch jerking is a long time tradition, up here in fall and spring. Poor man's shrimp.
The perch we catch to eat are 12-16" long. You get on a school of them, and they're all big.
Glenn reply :
Technically, bass are not "indigenous" to Washington and Oregon, even though they were introduced well over 100 years ago. Nonetheless, the game departments from both states are on a mission to kill them off in the name of the allmighty salmon, which fewer and fewer people fish for each year.
But I digress.
Perch are definitely a gamefish. This is the time of year to go after perch in the northern regions, including the Pacific NW. Big perch school up in big balls. 2-pounders are not uncommon. You drop a small jig or plastic through the school and it never hits the bottom. You can load up!
fishwizzard reply :
Further confusing the issue are white perch, which are really a "bass". I live by the Chesepeak Bay and they are popular as both a game fish and as a table fish. We used to have a lot of yellow perch as well but over development created too much sediment runoff and the population crashed.
Before I discovered freshwater bass (actualy a sunfish and iirc a "perch" as well) I was crazy for white perch fishing. With the right lures it's easy to catch a hundred in a day once they come up shallow.
RPreeb reply :
On 10/11/2017 at 9:19 PM, J Francho said:Just some old, backwards thinking. Perch jerking is a long time tradition, up here in fall and spring. Poor man's shrimp.
The perch we catch to eat are 12-16" long. You get on a school of them, and they're all big.
What can I say? We were kids with cane poles fishing for sunfish, and perch were just considered bait stealers. We dug those worms ourselves, and perch could nibble away the worm and never get hooked. We could tell when a perch was feeding on our worm by how the bobber reacted, just twitching and jerking but never going under. Most of the perch we caught were 8 inches or less. We just did what everyone did. On the rare occasion when we did catch one big enough to eat, we kept it. We were usually fishing for the table.
@Vinjints I have never considered myself a "high and mighty bass fisherman". I'm an occasional fisherman whose fishing has ranged from barracuda to brook trout, and while I usually release what I catch, sometimes I like to eat fresh fish too. You aren't going to make me feel guilty about that, or about what I did as a kid.
WRB reply :
White perch are a true bass family like white bass and stripe bass are, not related to yellow perch or Largemouth, Spotted and Smallmouth bass. Confusing, you bet and consider in the south white crappie are called white perch or specks. How does anyone think a Britt trying to understand bass fishing in the US can sort this out?
FYI, we don't have any fresh water perch in SoCal that I know of, we have salt water surf perch.
My inlaws in Minnisota do not bass fish, they are walleye fisherman and lake trout in Canada and use live minnows for walleye bait and consider yellow perch bait robbers that should be feed to gulls. When asked if they ever eat perch the answer was never because they are full of bones and have soft meat, they don't eat bass or pike either.
Regional differences are hard to understand sometimes. When I lived and worke in Washington for awhile bass were considered trash fish and treated the same as my inlaws treated perch.
Tom
Raul reply :
On 10/11/2017 at 6:38 PM, TOXIC said:Don't forget that in the UK and many other places, the Carp is a gamefish!!
Caught while having a lunch break, I do fish for carp ocassionally.
J Francho reply :
On 10/12/2017 at 12:34 AM, WRB said:How does anyone think a Britt trying to understand bass fishing in the US can sort this out?
This why the binomial classification system is used. Sometimes there is a time and place for scientific nomenclature.
@Tim Kelly should be able to help the OP. He's from London, and made several trips out here. I've even had the pleasure of fishing with him a few times.
Tim Kelly reply :
Hi Richard.
If there's anything you need translated, I'll give it a crack for you. 
There are lots of regional names for fish that can be confusing, but if you spend a little time looking at reports and looking at the pictures attached you will soon start to cotton on to what they're talking about.
Word of warning, if you get to go to the States or Canada bass fishing it might very well spoil you for fishing back in the UK. Trudging a canal bank in the winter for a small perch or two doesn't really compare with screaming across a lake at 80mph and then flipping mats for aggressive largemouth or getting a feisty smallmouth to smash a popper.
I'm ruined.
J Francho reply :
On 10/12/2017 at 2:23 AM, Tim Kelly said:screaming across a lake at 80mph
That's Jimmy's boat, mine doesn't go quite that fast! 
The Bassman reply :
Here in IN a freshwater drum is a white perch. Boy are we confused.
Vinjints reply :
On 10/11/2017 at 11:56 PM, RPreeb said:
@Vinjints I have never considered myself a "high and mighty bass fisherman". I'm an occasional fisherman whose fishing has ranged from barracuda to brook trout, and while I usually release what I catch, sometimes I like to eat fresh fish too. You aren't going to make me feel guilty about that, or about what I did as a kid.
I'm not trying to make a stance or single anyone out. It was an honest question. Most articles I've read here, usually end with the "direction" to catch and release. I release fish because I'd probably sleep in the garage if I brought any home to even try and clean. Plus, I'd be the only one eating anything anyway. Catch it for fun, eat it for food, kill it because its some kind of detriment to the lake? I dunno, just seeing if there was any logic behind it. Otherwise, personally, I don't see the point. Especially given other remarks on other topics relating to "it's only a fish."
J Francho reply :
Let's stay on topic, and try to help a member out.
BassWhole! reply :
Technically speaking, the lavish boats are catching large mouth and small mouth sunfish. Harrod's doesn't sell Rangers?
The indigenous range of LMBs is actually not that great. They have been introduced all over the US (and the rest of the world). They do well in a wide range of conditions, hence their success.
Tim Kelly reply :
I think the nearest Ranger dealer is in central France. Harrods aren't what they once were. LOL
N Florida Mike reply :
Welcome to the forums ! To further muddy the water, there is Florida . We have our own names for fish here. Crappie are speckled perch or just " specks " to the locals. Bream are all the panfish species here i.e Bluegills, copperheads ( some in other regions call them coppernose sunfish ) , fliers,Shellcrackers ( redear sunfish ) stumpknockers,redbreasts, longears ,and warmouth perch.Largemouth bass are actually in the sunfish family.There are a few sub- species here ,suwanee bass,redeye, and northern and florida strain largemouth. When I was growing up , most people around here called them black bass. There are also white bass,striped bass,and sunshine bass,which is a hybrid of the former two.
Plenty of fish to catch here, and they are all good to eat ,including the catfish ,and all the saltwater fish ! ? The bass arent quite as good as the others mentioned , so I usually release them. But not always !
BassWhole! reply :
On 10/12/2017 at 2:44 PM, Tim Kelly said:I think the nearest Ranger dealer is in central France. Harrods aren't what they once were. LOL
I used to go to London and Paris for 2 weeks each a year for work back in the 80s, back then you could buy a string of polo ponies or such there. I opted for a titanium Mont Blanc®, gold Dupont™ lighter, and a cricket bat. The seats on the SST were cramped, and it could have used more sound dampening insulation ... (Don't judge, it was the 80s...)
Steveo-1969 reply :
On 10/12/2017 at 2:47 AM, The Bassman said:Here in IN a freshwater drum is a white perch. Boy are we confused.
Where I grew up in Wisconsin a freshwater drum was called a sheepshead (or a goat).
related General Bass Fishing Forum topic
most viewed General Bass Fishing Forum topic
© 2024 - fishing.qciss.net. All Rights Reserved.