Largemouth Bassholes!!!

Largemouth bass interfering with my spinner, shot taken 2/26/18 while searching for trout.

Micropterus salmoides, aka. largemouth bass, happens to be one of the most important game fish in North America (according to McClanes "New Standard Fishing Encyclopedia"). Most I think would agree with that including myself. While they are not my favorite spiecies to target, it's very clear that a lot anglers will target them exclusivley. The thought of getting that 10+ lb lunker and a still shot to show the friends and family is enough to keep many occupied.

This time of year (February) is typically a slow time of year on Long Island. Not many people are out trying to bend a rod let alone target largemouth. What you get are mostly deep sea fishermen going for cod, or trout fishermen trying to catch a native brook trout or a holdover brown or rainbow trout. Personally, I like to use this time to explore areas I have never been to. Because this time is slower with fishing I have no choice but to soak in as much information about the place to better plan future trips when the bite is hot. Also most freshwater bodies here are stocked with trout, to prefind where the stockies might hide out, I think, lends an edge.

Just yesterday I was on one of these fishing scouts. I made a visit to the same river in my post "Just Over the Rainbow Trout" only last week. I left there knowing the large potential I walked away from and was dying to make a second visit.

This time I wanted to get into the places that are hard to get to. My goal is to eventually fish every single hole and get a feel for them. This takes a very long time and I figure now would be the best time to find holes, before things grow in and are no longer visible.

When I go out on these trips I use mostly only spinners (I plan to start fly fishing as well, but, thats future talk). Wading up creeks and rivers throwing the appropriate profile and colors, I have chances of catching holdovers from previous stockings. And that I did in the post "Just Over the Rainbow trout", but, this trip yesterday was a bit different.

I saw plenty of trout with only dustings and chasing, uneventful as far as that went. But, a total surprise when the hook of my spinner was set into this 1 lb largemouth bass. It seems very early for a bass to be agressive enough to be taking a lure like this in that shallow of water. I could be wrong but my understanding was that they should be hiding out in the deep holes in the connected ponds.

To me it seems like the bass on here have started becoming active much earlier in the year. Which makes sense, the past few years overall temperature has been more mild going into spring. While this is not good as far as global warming, I may in my opinion be better for the bass in this region. This might mean they will spawn earlier, giving the fry(baby bass) a longer season of growing during their first year of life. Not to forget about the mature bass with more time to be a glutton.

Taken last year in early March.

Micropterus salmoides, aka. largemouth bass, one of the most important game fish in North America. Seems to me to be here to hold that position down, global warming or not. I am intersted to see if the sizes increase like I think they will, or will the abundance of fry create more competition.

lol, large bass do eat fry so it is possible that the whole thing will balance itself out. Again, for now that is. . .

While largmouth bass in this area may not be affected negativly by global warming they may be in other places. Other species here are negativly affected. Brook trout for example are a native cold water fish here.

We should all do our best to be green and take care of mother earth. We only have one and we should cherish it like that.

Thank you for reading!!

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Link to "Just Over The Rainbow Trout"

https://steemit.com/fishing/@nickbuha/just-over-the-rainbow-trout <<<