Smallmouth bass is regarded to be ranked among the hardest fighting freshwater fish. It is also often referred to as the brown bass, brownies, bronzebacks, smalls and smallies. Many anglers and fishermen love the challenge of catching these aggressive fishes and the great feeling after a well-fought battle.
Smallmouth bass fishes are well thought-out by most people to be the sportiest freshwater fish. They are known for their fighting stamina and beyond belief leaping ability. Like largemouths, they will take almost any kind of lure or bait, but they commonly prefer smaller sizes. Favorites include jigs, crankbaits, spinners, streamer flies, shiner minnow, crayfish, hellgrammites, leeches, and nightcrawlers.
The jaw of a brown bass, which extends directly below the eye, is smaller compared to that of a largemouth bass. Its cheeks have from twelve to seventeen rows of scales and the dorsal fins are joined with ten spines and thirteen to fourteen soft rays.
It is golden bronze or brown in color, with a lighter, more creamy underbelly that the largemouth which has a greenish one. It has vertical dark bands or marks on the sides and its eyes have a dash of red.
Most brownies weigh between 1 and 1.5 and they can run as high as 4 or 5 pounds.
They have a preference of cool water, but will have a tendency to follow food sources. It is sensitive to environmental factors and can be greatly affected by polluted waters. Clean rivers and lakes are necessary for them to survive. They will move about from one habitat to another as temperature changes throughout the year.
Smallies prefer rock strewn, gravelly hard bottoms. It is not common for them to stay in areas with soft sandy or muddy bottoms. Bronzebacks, which are found in rivers, usually hangout in shallow rocky pools and ledges during the cooler spring weather. It is also likely for them to settle on grass beds and weedy patches growing on small islands and along the banks, especially as the growth attracts forage. When the water heats up, they will tend to transfer to the deeper pools kin the rivers main channels, or to the faster moving parts of the riffles that offer cooler water.
In lakes, they in general move to deeper water as the water warms up. They cling to around structure and shade. Smallies can be found in deeper grass and weed beds where forage and cover is available.
They prefer to spawn in water temperatures within 62 to 65 degrees. They can usually be found spawning sometime between April and June. They will spawn in depths of 2 to 10 feet. The male cleans debris from a small circular area to create the nest and guards it for about a month after spawning to allow the fry to grow to swim freely.
The rocky lakes of Canadian Shield produce a perfect environment for not only the large trophy of these species but for a great number of other fishes.
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