Big Bass

[Gut Shot]

I know, you were expecting a seven pound largemouth. Frankly, I don't care if I never catch another largemouth.

This is a yellow bass, and at around 12.5" it's about as big as they generally get. I think the state record is around a pound and a half. My daughter pulled this one out of the local reservoir on a leech.

When I was a kid we never knew what a yellow bass was. Ten to fifteen years ago we started catching them in Iowa/Illinois tributaries and impoundments off of the Mississippi. They are the smallest member of the striper family and very good to eat with less blood in the meat than white bass.

 

[JDH]

I would catch them all the time while crappie fishing in TN. I got so tired of them stealing my minnows I started keeping most of them. Gotta watch that gill plate when getting the hook out.

 

[R.K.]

View attachment 280642

I know, you were expecting a seven pound largemouth. Frankly, I don't care if I never catch another largemouth.

This is a yellow bass, and at around 12.5" it's about as big as they generally get. I think the state record is around a pound and a half. My daughter pulled this one out of the local reservoir on a leech.

When I was a kid we never knew what a yellow bass was. Ten to fifteen years ago we started catching them in Iowa/Illinois tributaries and impoundments off of the Mississippi. They are the smallest member of the striper family and very good to eat with less blood in the meat than white bass.

They’re delicious. Small ones are perfect scaled and fried whole. I like to grill the bigger ones like that, but fried is just as good.

 

[Treeshark]

That is a huge yellow bass. We don’t catch many around here- Winnebago system is almost 100% whitebass, but there are a ton of them. Once in a while.