How Long Do Bass Get?

[323Walter]

On 4/1/2013 at 9:53 PM, Fish Chris said:

My 18.4 lb PB, was 29 1/2". But fish over 20 lbs have been caught, which were the same length as mine, or even shorter. A crazy long, big headed, straight bellied 17 lb'er from Florida, might be 32" ? 33" ?

 

Fish

Chris is that the possible world record meanmouth you have pictured in your avatar??? That might be one of the nicest to look at fish I've ever seen, who cares if it is a hybrid or not. Have you caught any others that have similar markings? 

In Iowa where some of our shallow ponds get completely covered with some kind of scum I frequently catch largemouths that are just plain looking. No markings whatsoever. If I was going to catch a notable lunker I'd prefer one that was awesome to look at like yours!

I attached a pic of one of Missouri's prior record hybrid (smallie x spot) mixes that I thought you might find interesting. Missouri does a great job of making info about previous state records available and there are pictures of a few prior records.

FWIW the Iowa DNR won't introduce smallmouth to our one lake with spots because they don't want them mixing genetically as it is our only lake with spotted bass in the state. I know this is completely off topic but thought some people might want to look at this link from Iowa's Bionet stream sampling. It is a hybrid that I believe to be a LMB and SMB or the original meanmouth. Maybe someone here has seen a LMB & SMB hybrid and has some insight? It was found in the far NW corner of the state and the only spot population exists in the SE region of Iowa which is already pushing the limits of where spots can survive.

https://programs.iowadnr.gov/bionet/Fish/Species/150

On 2/9/2018 at 9:57 AM, WRB said:

All those recorded lengths without the measurement method defined or 1 photo of a bass using a tape measure to validate the length measurement. Giant bass measure with their mouth open hanging vertical could easily measure over 32", mouth closed laying flat same bass is under 29". 

Giant bass that get away next to the boat are look over 36" long and by the time we get back to tell someone it weighs over 25 lbs. The problem is they tend to shrink when measured and loose several pounds.

Tom

Agreed, I think it's all a big bunch of lies. I have left Florida as incomplete in my data mining of all the state records as their record is "only" 17+ and in Larry Larsen's book he speaks of numerous fish that are larger including the prior world record but with no way of verifying any of it to get usable data on anything related to the true state record of Florida it's a shame that I have to leave it out as I don't want to be using fish story data in my spreadsheet to dilute any possible insights I hope to gain from it.

[323Walter]

On 2/9/2018 at 9:41 PM, soflabasser said:

There has been several bass bigger than the current state record caught in Florida but they where not submitted to the state for the official state record. There has been several documented cases of Florida largemouth bass over 30 inches, mostly in Central/North Florida. I myself have caught several largemouth bass in the 25-27.75'' range in South Florida where largemouth bass don't grow as big in the state and lots of +28'' largemouth bass are caught every year in Central/North Florida. Florida fishermen tend to be tight lipped about their catches and many Florida fishermen would not reveal where they catch their potential state record sized bass and I don't blame them since the place would get hit very hard from people all across the nation and the place would no longer be as good as it was before.

I agree. I would love to know the true state record from Florida for my data mining project on all the state records but I've chosen to leave it out as there is no verifiable way of knowing which fish is the true #1 of Florida. After all the researching I've been doing I think that if someone were to build a Camelot Bell of Florida that lake would have a better chance of growing a world record bass than one in Texas just due to climate and being in the native range of Florida bass. From everything I've read it seems what limits the bass from growing to maximum proportions there is often water depth? Prior to doing all this research on bass growth I thought the southern part of Florida would have produced the biggest specimens much like my home state (Iowa) has it's largest fish come from just north of the Missouri border. 

Either way I think it would be awesome to catch a Florida bass in it's native waters as well as the other black bass species native to parts of Florida like the suwanee, etc. 

[BassObsessed]

Being in the native range isn't a concern if you base it on how big the Japan and Ca. bass are. Not gorging on trout like the Ca. fish has an effect. Iv'e caught some Fl bass in the 28'' range but like stated above a lot of big fish aren't documented due to the word getting out.

[soflabasser]

10 hours ago, 323Walter said:

I agree. I would love to know the true state record from Florida for my data mining project on all the state records but I've chosen to leave it out as there is no verifiable way of knowing which fish is the true #1 of Florida. After all the researching I've been doing I think that if someone were to build a Camelot Bell of Florida that lake would have a better chance of growing a world record bass than one in Texas just due to climate and being in the native range of Florida bass. From everything I've read it seems what limits the bass from growing to maximum proportions there is often water depth? Prior to doing all this research on bass growth I thought the southern part of Florida would have produced the biggest specimens much like my home state (Iowa) has it's largest fish come from just north of the Missouri border. 

Either way I think it would be awesome to catch a Florida bass in it's native waters as well as the other black bass species native to parts of Florida like the suwanee, etc. 

 

 I won't be surprised one bit if the current Florida state largemouth bass record gets beat in the ''official way'' in the next 10 years. Hundreds of +10 pounders get caught every single year in Florida, many of them over 13 pounds. A young man came close to beating the state record largemouth bass last year with a bass close to 17 pounds. Thats one of the many reasons why Florida is known as the fishing capital of the world and why so many out of staters come spend their money in Florida to have a chance to catch a new PB that they might not be able to do in their home state.Yes its very nice to catch pure strain largemouth bass in its native waters, and I am very grateful for having the privilege to live in Florida.I have caught Suwannee bass, they are fun to catch and much stronger pound for pound than a largemouth bass of equal size.

[A-Jay]

This is the longest LMB I've ever seen.

We don't usually measure length/girth,

just being satisfied with an accurate weight.

We happened to have a mat so we laid her out. 

This one was 12-4 and seemed almost as round as she was long.

Mexican bass are just different.

btw-this giant came compliments of Big Fish Jeff.

A-Jay

 

 

 

 

[Dwight Hottle]

This Mexican bass was 27.16 x 19.68.

 

 

 

[gim]

Aye caramba!