Largemouth Bass: The Neighborhood Roughneck
Wherever you fish in the United States, and in some parts of Canada, you’ll find available the largemouth bass. He hangs out around any watery corner, always ready to pick a fight with whoever comes along. He’s the roughneck of the neighborhood.
It is this pugnacious quality that thousands of people enjoy when largemouth bass fishing; that, and the ease with which the muscular largemouth can be found and induced to strike. But once a bass is hooked, the angler better be prepared to go “all out” in handling his rod and reel properly — the largemouth bass wasn’t born yesterday when it comes to scrapping. More of them shake off a hook than ever are boated.
From the time he leaves his family group (at a young and tender age), the bass is looking for fights. He’ll eat almost any other fish small enough to enter the great cavern that is his mouth. He makes life miserable for frogs, water flies, crawfish, and errant mice that somehow get in the lake. All sorts of plugs and lures seem a challenge to him; there are times when he’ll strike the most incongruous of them.
Anyone who has tangled with one of these battlers is a convert to thrills. The bass is exceeded as an aerialist only by the trout and perhaps the musky among fresh water fishes. He will tangle your line in brush piles, wrap it around sunken logs, dive into huge masses of weeds and swim in a tight circle until your gear is hopelessly fouled, swim under the boat so fast you can’t see him — and fray your line on the keel. Of all the fishing tips for bass that you might receive, remember this one: a largemouth is never licked until he’s in the bottom of the boat. In other words this isn’t like playing computer fishing games.
When you’re fighting a bass, it’s like watching a sky full of lightning. The bass might even be termed “the picnic fish.” He’s so handy to your back door, that a neighborhood group can get together on some nearby lake ‘most any day, to catch a few, eat a good outdoor meal of fried fish, and feel bigger and stronger, not only because of a day spent in the open, but because of a triumph over a mug of a fish who enjoys life most when he’s slugging it out with someone – anyone — maybe even you!