Largemouth bass

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iLargemouth Bass

Conservation status
Data deficient (DD)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Centrarchidae
Genus: Micropterus
Species: M. salmoides
Binomial name
Micropterus salmoides

The Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) is a species of fish. Also known as Black Bass, Green Trout, Bigmouth Bass, and Lineside Bass.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Physical Description

The largemouth bass is marked by a series of dark blotches forming a ragged horizontal stripe along the length of each side. It can also be totally black. The upper jaw of a largemouth bass extends beyond the back of the eye. The average largemouth bass weighs 1 to 2 pounds and between 8 and 18 inches long. The largest of the black basses, it has reached a maximum recorded overall length of 97 cm (38 in), and a maximum recorded weight of 22 lb, 4 oz (10 kg, 113 g). It can live as long as 23 years, and, along with the black crappie, is also known as the Oswego bass.

[edit] Reproduction

Largemouth usually spawn in shallow bays in the spring when the water temperatures reach about 60° F. Females can lay up to a million eggs during each spawn in a shallow depression in the ground formed by the male. The male will then guard the eggs and, after they hatch in five to ten days, the fry, driving away any predators that come too close to the nest site. The fry remain in a group for several days after hatching. When the fry reach about two inches in length, they disperse and begin to feed on plankton and insect larvae.

[edit] Interaction with humans

A large specimen of M. salmoides caught by an angler in Connecticut.
Enlarge
A large specimen of M. salmoides caught by an angler in Connecticut.

Largemouth put up a very respectable fight for the sport fisherman, though many say their cousin species the smallmouth bass can best them pound for pound. Largemouth, though preyed upon by larger animals or other fishes when young, usually occupy the apex predator niche when older, which dignifies them with a level of sporting prestige as quarry. Largemouth are usually fished for with lures, and it is common amongst anglers to release them alive. Largemouth respond well to catch and release because of their hardiness, and the ability of their large mouth to withstand repeated hook injuries without compromising their ability to feed or damaging their gills.

The IGFA's officially recognized heaviest largemouth bass on record was caught by George Perry at Montgomery Lake in Telfair County, Georgia, on June 2, 1932, and it weighed 22 lb. 4 oz. (10.1 kg). This was surpassed in March 2006 when Mac Weakley, of Carlsbad, California, pulled a 25 lb. 1 oz. largemouth bass into his fishing boat. [1] However, the bass was not hooked in the mouth, was weighed on an uncertified hand-held digital scale, and then released, placing its official recognition by the IGFA as the new world record in an ongoing dispute.[2]

The largemouth bass is the state fish of Georgia and Mississippi.

[edit] Invasiveness

The largemouth bass has been widely introduced for sport fishing, and now has a cosmopolitan distribution. Following introduction, the fish seems usually to become established in local ecosystems, where it has adverse ecological impacts. In particular, it is implicated in the decline of local, occasionally rare fish, through predation. [3] It has been nominated as one of the world's worst 100 invasive species.[4]

[edit] References

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