Largemouth Bass

Zimbabwe is a red hot Bass fishing destination and home to some genuinely HUGE bass, in fact the largest Largemouth Bass caught outside of the USA and Mexico came from this country. The monster 8.2 kg fish was caught by Maxwell Mashandure on a junebug senko on 25 July 2004 at Darwendale Dam outside Harare.

The northern strain Largemouth Bass were introduced into Rhodesia in the early 1940s. These fish had been brought to South Africa in 1927 and raised at the Jonkershoek Hatchery near Cape Town. In the 1970s, the then government operated a hatchery below the famous Matopos Dam near Bulawayo. The Matopos hatchery successfully started to breed black bass for stocking and distribution.

In 1982, Ray Scott, founder of BASS shipped 2500 Florida Strain Largemouth Bass fingerlings on a Delta Airlines flight then SAA via Johannesburg to Bulawayo. Only 7 fingerlings were DOA after this trip, the rest as they say is history. The descendants of these 2493 fingerlings have today made Zimbabwe a mecca for BIG Bass and perhaps even a real contender for a new World Record Largemouth Bass.

Description:
The largemouth bass is an olive-green fish, in the North East right after ice-out, it most often has a gray color, marked by a series of dark, sometimes black, blotches forming a jagged horizontal stripe along each flank. The upper jaw (maxilla) of a largemouth bass extends beyond the rear margin of the orbit. In comparison to age, a female bass is larger than a male. The largemouth is the largest of the black basses, reaching a maximum recorded overall length of 29.5 in (75 cm) and a maximum unofficial weight of 25 pounds 1 ounce (11.4 kg). The fish lives 16 years on average.

Feeding:
The juvenile largemouth bass consumes mostly small bait fish, scuds, small shrimp, and insects. Adults consume smaller fish (bluegill, banded killifish), snails, crawfish (crayfish), frogs, snakes, salamanders, bats and even small water birds, mammals, and baby alligators. In larger lakes and reservoirs, adult bass occupy deeper water than younger fish, and shift to a diet consisting almost entirely of smaller fish like shad, yellow perch, ciscoes, shiners, and sunfish. It also consumes younger members of larger fish species, such as pike, catfish, trout, walleye, white bass, striped bass, and even smaller black bass. Prey items can be as large as 50% of the bass’s body length or larger.

Studies of prey utilization by largemouths show that in weedy waters, bass grow more slowly due to difficulty in acquiring prey. Less weed cover allows bass to more easily find and catch prey, but this consists of more open-water baitfish. With little or no cover, bass can devastate the prey population and starve or be stunted. Fisheries managers must consider these factors when designing regulations for specific bodies of water. Under overhead cover, such as overhanging banks, brush, or submerged structure, such as weedbeds, points, humps, ridges, and drop-offs, the largemouth bass uses its senses of hearing, sight, vibration, and smell to attack and seize its prey. Adult largemouth are generally apex predators within their habitat, but they are preyed upon by many animals while young.