ALABAMA – There is a growing stir in West Virginia’s bass fishing community regarding a new threat to both largemouth and smallmouth bass alike. The Alabama bass isn’t necessarily new, but it’s just now coming to the conscious of West Virginia.
Mark Scott, Assistant Chief of Fish Management for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources first learned about the unusual strain of bass during an informational seminar at the 2020 Bassmaster Classic in Alabama, ironically in a presentation from state fish biologists from North Carolina.
“They were talking about how they had pretty much wiped out the largemouth in Lake Norman. It took them a few years, but anglers now tell me maybe one out of ten fish you catch there will be a largemouth,” Scott said during a visit on West Virginia Outdoors.
The Alabama bass is native to lower Alabama in the Mobile Bay drainage. It is similar to the Kentucky spotted bass in West Virginia. But it grows fast and gets big. plus it’s an aggressive fighter. It certainly sounds like it would be fun to catch. But there are the consequences when you look at the other side of this invasive species.
“Look at Lake Norman,” Scott explained. “If you want to catch largemouth bass and you put a fish in there to out-compete them, that’s not a real smart thing to do.”
The fish seem to edge out the largemouth in competition for food and habitat. According to Scott, once they’ve taken over a fishery and eliminated competing species, they multiply and start to stunt in growth.
