Bass is a name shared by many species of fish. The term encompasses both freshwater and marine species, all belonging to the large order Perciformes, or perch-like fishes. The word bass comes from Middle English bars, meaning 'perch'.
Micropterus is a genus of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. The species of this genus are known as the black bass.
The spotted bass, also called spotty, or spots in various fishing communities, is a species of North American freshwater fish belonging to the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of the order Perciformes. It is noted for the rows of dark spots below the lateral line, which give it its common name. One of the black basses, it is native to the Mississippi River basin and across the Gulf states, from central Texas through the Florida panhandle. Its native range extends into the western Mid-Atlantic states and it has been introduced into western North Carolina and Virginia. It has also been introduced to southern Africa, where it has become established in some isolated waters as an invasive species.
The smallmouth bass is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of the order Perciformes. It is the type species of its genus. One of the black basses, it is a popular game fish sought by anglers throughout the temperate zones of North America, and has been spread by stocking—as well as illegal introductions—to many cool-water tributaries and lakes in Canada and more so introduced in the United States. The maximum recorded size is approximately 27 inches and 12 pounds. The smallmouth bass is native to the upper and middle Mississippi River basin, the Saint Lawrence River–Great Lakes system, and up into the Hudson Bay basin. The world record size was 11 lbs and 15 ounces caught in the reservoir Dale Hollow, on the Kentucky—Tennessee border. Its common names include smallmouth, bronzeback, brown bass, brownie, smallie, bronze bass, and bareback bass.
The largemouth bass is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae (sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but widely introduced elsewhere. It is known by a variety of regional names, such as the widemouth bass, bigmouth bass, black bass, bucketmouth, largies, Potter's fish, Florida bass, Florida largemouth, green bass, bucketmouth bass, Green trout, gilsdorf bass, Oswego bass, LMB, and southern largemouth and northern largemouth. The largemouth bass is the state fish of Georgia and Mississippi, and the state freshwater fish of Florida and Alabama.
The Redeye bass, Redeye, or Coosa Bass is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) native to the Coosa River system of Georgia, Alabama. The waters it is normally found in are cool streams and rivers in the foothills of mountains.
Centrarchidae are a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes. The type genus is Centrarchus. The centrarchid family comprises 38 species of fish, 34 of which are extant and includes many fish familiar to North Americans, including the rock bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, green sunfish, and crappies. All species in the family are native to only North America.
Bass fishing is the activity of angling for the North American gamefish known colloquially as the black bass. There are numerous black bass species considered as gamefish in North America, including largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, spotted bass or Kentucky bass, and Guadalupe bass. Black bass are members of the sunfish family, Centrarchidae.
Gars are members of the family Lepisosteidae which are the only surviving members of Ginglymodi, an ancient holosteian group of ray-finned fish which first appeared during the Triassic, over 240 million years ago. Gars comprise seven living species of fish in two genera that inhabit fresh, brackish, and occasionally marine waters of eastern North America, Central America and Cuba in the Caribbean, though extinct members of the family were more widespread. Gars have elongated bodies that are heavily armored with ganoid scales, and fronted by similarly elongated jaws filled with long, sharp teeth. Gars are sometimes referred to as "garpike", but are not closely related to pike, which are in the fish family Esocidae. All of the gars are relatively large fish, but the alligator gar is the largest – the alligator gar often grows to a length of over 2 m (6.5 ft) and a weight of over 45 kg (100 lb), and specimens of up to 3 m (9.8 ft) in length have been reported. Unusually, their vascularised swim bladders can function as lungs, and most gars surface periodically to take a gulp of air. Gar flesh is edible and the hard skin and scales of gars are used by humans, but gar eggs are highly toxic.
The Ocmulgee River is a western tributary of the Altamaha River, approximately 255 mi (410 km) long, in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the westernmost major tributary of the Altamaha. It was formerly known by its Hitchiti name of Ocheese Creek, from which the Creek (Muscogee) people derived their name.
The brown bullhead is a fish of the family Ictaluridae that is widely distributed in North America. It is a species of bullhead catfish and is similar to the black bullhead and yellow bullhead. It was originally described as Pimelodus nebulosus by Charles Alexandre Lesueur in 1819, and is also referred to as Ictalurus nebulosus.
The warmouth, is a freshwater fish of the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) that is found throughout the eastern United States. Other local names include molly, redeye, goggle-eye, red-eyed bream, and strawberry perch.
The Suwannee bass is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. One of the black basses, This species is native to just two river systems in Florida and Georgia, although it has been introduced elsewhere.
The rock bass, also known as the rock perch, goggle-eye, red eye, is a freshwater fish native to east-central North America. This red eyed creature is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes and can be distinguished from other similar species by the six spines in the anal fin.
The shadow bass is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of order Perciformes. It is endemic to southeastern United States of America.
The Cape kurper is a species of fish in the family Anabantidae, the climbing gouramis or climbing perches. It is endemic to South Africa.
David P. Philipp is an American-born biologist known for his work on conservation genetics, reproductive ecology, and the effects of angling on fish populations. He is a conservation geneticist and Director of the Fisheries Genetics Lab at the Illinois Natural History Survey, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois, and the Chair of the Fisheries Conservation Foundation. Philipp has supervised a number of graduate students including Steven J. Cooke, Cory Suski, Derek Aday, Jeff Koppelman, Jana Svec, Jimmy Ludden, Dale Burkett, Sascha Danylchuk and Jeff Stein.
The Choctaw bass is a provisional new species of black bass found in the upper panhandle of Florida.
Micropterus henshalli, the Alabama bass, is a medium-sized freshwater ray finned fish, a black bass from the genus Micropterus which is part of the sunfish family Centrarchidae. This species is endemic to the southeastern United States where it is native to the rivers which drain into Mobile Bay in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia where they are found in pools in rivers which have a good flow and in impoundments. They have been introduced elsewhere in the United States and the hybridisation of this species with the redeye bass after Alabama bass were introduced into Keowee Reservoir, South Carolina is thought to have probably been the cause in the decline in the population of redeye bass. Micropterus henshalli was first formally described as a subspecies of the spotted bass by Carl Leavitt Hubbs and Reeve Maclaren Bailey in 1940 with the type locality given as Jefferson County, Alabama. The specific name honors James L. Henshall who was a bass angler.
The Halloween darter is a small freshwater fish native to North America. It is found in Georgia and Alabama in the drainage basin of the Apalachicola River, specifically in the Flint River system and the Chattahoochee River system. It prefers shallow, fast-flowing areas with gravel bottoms in small and medium-sized rivers. It was first described in 2008, having not previously been distinguished from the blackbanded darter (P. nigrofasciata), which occurs in the same watershed. The color is somewhat variable, being generally blackish dorsally, with some individuals having indistinct saddle-like barring. Males have orange and dark lateral striping while females have dark stripes and a yellowish-green belly. At a maximum standard length of 101 mm (4 in), males are slightly larger than females, and both sexes develop distinctive orange barring on the edge of the first dorsal fin during the breeding season.
