COLUMN : BASS HISTORY our favorite invasive species
Largemouth are everywhere , but where did they come from ?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ken Duke has been writing about all aspects of bass fishing for 40 years . When he ’ s not reading about , writing about , thinking about or talking about bass fishing , he ’ s usually bass fishing .
I love everything about bass fishing . I love the experience . I love the gear . I love the competition . I love the biology . I love the camaraderie . But most of all , I love the history . That ’ s where it all comes together for me . The fact that you ’ re reading this column tells me you share that passion . Welcome . This installment of “ Bass History ” goes way back – almost back to the U . S . Civil War and the middle of the 19th Century . It does not go as far back as the bass itself , but it might as well for our purposes .
You may know that the largemouth bass is the most widely distributed freshwater fish on the planet . Only the brown trout comes close . Today , the largemouth can be found in 49 of the 50 United States ( and one was caught in Alaska a few years back , but that ’ s a different story ). The largemouth is also in Canada , Mexico , South America , Africa , Europe and Asia . The only two continents that don ’ t have largemouths are Antarctica and Oceania .
But if you look at a map of the native range of the largemouth bass – where they started and were first discovered by man – the area is considerably smaller . When bass were first identified , they lived only in the southern and central U . S . Now they ’ re practically everywhere Ever wonder how they got there ? Well , they didn ’ t walk … or even swim , for the most part . They were brought in by men and stocked . A principal figure in that effort was Spencer Fullerton Baird , and if you ’ ve never heard of him , I ’ m not surprised .
28 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | DECEMBER-JANUARY 2022