The largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) is a perciform freshwater fish, the largest of the black basses and of the family Centrarchidae. Growing to 97 centimetres (38 inches) in length, it is native to and found throughout North America to northern Mexico; largemouth bass have since been introduced to many other countries.
| Largemouth bass | ||||||||||||||
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(Lacepede, 1802) |
The upper jaw extends beyond the back of the eye. A series of dark blotches form the appearance of a ragged dark horizontal stripe along the length of each side. It prefers a habitat of warm, calm, clear water and is usually found in slow moving streams, ponds, lakes and reservoirs. Females can lay up to a million eggs during each spawning. As the fry grow up, they start feeding on small invertebrates and then fishes, frogs, small ducklings and any animal that they can swallow.
This species is considered a highly sought after fish in the recreational fishery, usually caught by baitcasting. It is one of the group of freshwater fishes that are collectively called the black basses.
Most of this information was taken from the following source:
Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland & Delaware by F.C Rohde, R.G. Arndt, D.G. Lindquist, & J.F. Parnell. 1994. University of North Carolina Press. 222 pp.