Everything You Need to Know About the Smallmouth Bass

The smallmouth bass doesn't get the marketing the largemouth gets. It doesn't dominate tournament trails the same way. What it has is a reputation among every angler who's caught both — that pound for pound, it's the better fighter. Not by a little. The world record stands at 11 pounds 15 ounces — caught by David Hayes at Dale Hollow Lake, Tennessee, on July 9, 1955. In 1996, an affidavit surfaced claiming the fish had been stuffed with three pounds of motor parts. The IGFA stripped the record. Multiple polygraph tests later proved the affidavit was falsified. The record was reinstated in 2005. Hayes was 80 years old when he got it back. It still stands today — 71 years later. Crayfish make up 60 to 90 percent of a smallmouth's diet — higher than any other North American freshwater predator of comparable size. When invasive gobies show up, that ratio flips to 50-60% goby. The Great Lakes goby invasion measurably changed what smallmouth bass eat throughout the entire basin. And here's the biology behind the fight: smallmouth evolved in current. That fast-twitch muscle system built for holding position against river flow is the same system that produces the jumps, the runs, and the fight that largemouth simply can't match. 00:00 Introduction 00:38 Section 1 — The Biology 03:19 Section 2 — The World Record 06:33 Section 3 — Habitat 10:52 Section 4 — Feeding Behavior 13:39 Section 5 — The Fight 17:07 Section 6 — How to Catch Smallmouth Bass If you want to master the science, biology, and mechanics of fishing, subscribe to Fishing Lab and drop a Like. #SmallmouthBass #BassFishing #FishingLab #SmallmouthBassFishing #WorldRecordBass #DaleHollowLake #BassBiology #RiverFishing #CrayfishFishing #FreshwaterFishing