Spotted Bass

Spotted bass are green-bronze black bass with a dark lateral band broken into blotches, rows of small dark spots on the lower sides that give them their name, a rough tooth patch on the tongue and a jaw that does not extend past the eye. They are native to the lower Mississippi, Ohio and Gulf Coast drainages from Texas to Georgia and north to Ohio, and have been introduced to clear reservoirs in California, Virginia, North Carolina and elsewhere. The closely related Alabama bass (Micropterus henshalli), until recently lumped with spotted bass, is the fish behind the giant spots of California's New Bullards Bar and the lakes of the Southeast. Native spots typically run 1–2 lb; 4 lb is a trophy in most waters.

Spots favor clear, deep, rocky reservoirs and cool flowing rivers, holding on points, bluffs, standing timber and offshore humps rather than shallow weeds, and they school aggressively on shad, blueback herring and crawfish. They suspend over deep water more than other bass, often 20–40 ft down in summer and winter, and they bite through cold fronts that shut largemouth down. Pound for pound they pull harder than any other black bass, which makes them a tournament favorite on lakes such as Lanier, Smith and Norman. Their spread into new waters has displaced smallmouth and largemouth in some reservoirs, so several states encourage harvest.