Bass Fishing - Background

Background

Bass fishing in the United States largely evolved on its own, and was not influenced by angling developments in Europe or other parts of the world. Indeed modern British sea bass fisherman look to the United States freshwater bass techniques for inspiration for lure fishing and to the USA, Japan and China for tackle. During the early-to-mid-19th century, wealthy sport anglers in the United States (mostly located in the northeastern portion of the country) largely confined themselves to trout and salmon fishing using fly rods. While smallmouth bass were sought by some fly fishermen, most bass fishing was done by sustenance anglers using poles and live bait. The working-class heritage of bass fishing strongly influenced the sport and is manifested even today in its terminology, hobbyist literature, and media coverage.

In the mid-19th century, the first artificial lure used for bass was developed in the form of an Artificial fly. At first, these artificial fly patterns were largely derivations of existing trout and salmon flies. As time went on, new fly patterns were specifically developed to fish for bass, as well as heavier spinner/fly lures that could be cast by the baitcasting and fixed-spool casting reels and rods available at the time. Floating wooden lures(plugs) or poppers of lightweight cork or balsa were introduced around 1900, sometimes combined with hooks dressed with artificial fur or feathers. Production of the plastic worm began in 1949, but it was not until the 1960s that its use became popular. The plastic worm revolutionized the sport of bass fishing.

In the United States, the sport of bass fishing was greatly advanced by the stocking of largemouth and smallmouth bass outside their native ranges in the latter portion of the 19th century. As the nation's railroad system expanded, large numbers of 'tank' ponds were built by damming various small creeks that intersected the tracks in order to provide water for steam engines; later, new towns often sprang up alongside these water stops. Shippers found that black bass were a hardy species that could be transported in buckets or barrels via the railroad, sometimes using the spigot from the railroad water tank to aerate the fingerlings.

Largemouth bass were often stocked in tank ponds and warmer lakes, while smallmouth bass were distributed to lakes and rivers throughout the northern and western United States, as far west as California. Smallmouth were transplanted east of the Appalachians just before the Civil War, and afterwards introduced into New England.

Largemouth bass populations boomed after the U.S. Department of Agriculture began to advise and assist farmers in constructing and stocking farm ponds with largemouth bass, even offering advice on managing various fish species. Soon, those who had stocked largemouth bass on their farm ponds began to pursue them on a burgeoning number of new reservoirs and impoundments built in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s. These impoundments coincided with a postwar fishing boom, additional funds from sales of fishing licenses for the first large-scale attempts at bass fisheries management. This was especially true in the southern United States, where the largemouth bass thrived in waters too warm or turbid for other types of gamefish.

With increased industrialization and development, many of the nation's eastern trout rivers were dammed, polluted, or allowed to silt up, raising water temperatures and killing off the native brook trout. Smallmouth bass were often introduced to northern rivers now too warm for native trout, and slowly became a popular gamefish with many anglers. Equally adaptable to large, cool-water impoundments and reservoirs, the smallmouth also spread far beyond its original native range. Later, smallmouth populations also began to decline after years of damage caused by overdevelopment and industrial and agricultural pollution, as well as a loss of river habitat caused by damming many formerly wild rivers in order to form lakes or reservoirs. In recent years, a renewed emphasis on preserving water quality and riparian habitat in the nation's rivers and lakes, together with stricter management practices, eventually benefited smallmouth populations and has caused a resurgence in their popularity with anglers.