Finally, Shoal Bass Habitat…But I Catch THIS Instead

At last, I reach the kind of habitat I’ve been searching for all day on the Chattahoochee River.

Current pours through the middle of the channel from an open floodgate upstream, creating exactly the sort of flowing habitat where native Shoal Bass should still survive. Unlike spotted bass and their hybrids, shoal bass are true current-loving river fish, and if I’m going to find one anywhere in this stretch of river…it should be here.

So I commit to spending the rest of the day working this area thoroughly.

Then I get a bite.

Unfortunately, it turns out to be the smallest bass of the entire trip — one of the tiniest fish I’ve ever caught on a plastic worm. And naturally…it’s another hybrid spotted bass.

Good thing these fish don’t have teeth. If you fell into a school of them, you might never escape alive.

Since I rarely get the opportunity while fishing, I take a closer look at this juvenile fish and discuss how biologists identify young black bass species at very small sizes. Juvenile bass can be surprisingly difficult to separate, especially in systems where hybridization is common, but years spent studying these fish in fisheries work taught me some of the subtle traits that point toward spotted bass ancestry even at tiny sizes.

Still no shoal bass.

But finally, at least now, we’re fishing the right water

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Follow along to see the rest of the series:
Part 1 - https://youtube.com/shorts/7ZlH7PAbfwU
Part 2 - https://youtube.com/shorts/_OK3MkBE28I
Part 3 - https://youtube.com/shorts/QmaKGZAqCXU
Part 4 - https://youtube.com/shorts/N49DQOjuCfY
Part 5 - https://youtube.com/shorts/eXQ5SEJJznU
Part 6 - https://youtube.com/shorts/JvqPkcA98hs

#shoalbass
#chattahoocheeriver
#bassfishing
#nativebass
#blackbass
#riverfishing
#fishinghistory
#conservation
#blackbassfishing

Видео Finally, Shoal Bass Habitat…But I Catch THIS Instead канала Black Bass Talk