This brings us to the hidden variable in bass fishing: It’s not all about what lure you tie on, or even how hard you fish. It’s about understanding biological clock of the fish itself. You is standing on the bank of a lake known to produce many double-digit bass throughout the years. You set the hook into one and land a fifteen-inch fish. In the eyes of someone who doesn’t understand the genetics of that waterbody, it’s simply another average keeper for boat. But in the mind of someone who does, maybe you’re holding a future trophy that will reach its peak potential in four more years.
The graph below is a growth chart that shows the stark difference between Florida strain and northern strain. It shows how two fish that may be the same length could have very different ages and ultimately different potential futures based off their lineage.
Understanding Bass Growth and Biology
Size does not necessarily equal age Perhaps the most prominent myth among anglers is that largemouth grow linearly, meaning “the bigger the better”. We now know that’s far from true, largemouth bass experience clear-cut life stages that determines their rate of growth. For example, a fingerling will grow at one pace; a sub-adult will grow at another pace; an adult will grow at yet another pace. As the infographic points out, these fish grows the quickest during the ages 3-5. Conservation-minded anglers need to pay special attention here. Fish in this particular bracket has enough time to become sexually mature while still having plenty of energy left over to grow large instead of just focusing on reproduction. Harvesting too many fish when they’re first entering this fast-growth stage takes away the future trophy catch from the gene pool before it even have a chance to show its stuff.
This has a lot to do with genetics too. It’s the Florida subspecies versus the Northern subspecies. In short, Florida strain bass was developed by putting southern fish into northern waters, where many young fish died because of predators. What survived was a bunch of hardy fish that grew fast all their lives. You can see in the data above how much larger a five year old Florida strain bass will be than a five year old Northern strain. That means a lot when it comes to fishing expectations. When you’re on the water in Florida or Texas, you need to expect a 20 inch bass is probably going to be younger and heavier than a 20 inch bass on the water in Michigan or Minnesota. Knowing this lets you set your hook properly and adjust your tackle to match instead of just guessing that every state has the same averages.
The driving force of all this genetic potential is water temperature. The surrounding water temperature dictates the metabolic rate (ectothermic) of a bass. Below the fifty-degree mark, bass becomes virtually dormant. They conserve energy instead of burn calories for growth. Now when we get that temperature up into the mid-seventies, watch out because their feed intensifies. This is where reservoir fisheries with plenty of shad forage become so productive at producing big fish. A shad is a very high-fat prey item, which gives a bass an extreme amount of extra energy from one meal. Couple that with a Florida strain bass, peak summer heat and no limit on fat shad and you have the recipe for a trophy-producing storm.
You should of know that when a female reaches a particular age she will outsize a male most every time. Female bass six-years old or more make up the vast majority of those five- pounders or heavier. That’s just the way biology works. All of this catch-and-release and slot limit stuff helps this population much more then it seems because it protects big breeding females. These are the fish that return to the spawning beds year after year and produce offspring with their strength and size.
To conclude. The whole idea behind a growth chart isn’t as much remembering numbers as it is learning what’s possible. You learn patience and how important biology is in making big fish gets big. And when you’re finally holding onto that twenty pounder, you’ll realize that it didn’t happen by chance. It happened because they had good genetics, warm water, lots of food and time to themselves to become something special. Next time you see one swim off after being released, maybe think that you just released a fish that could be a record someday.