The largemouth bass is one of the most familiar freshwater fish in North America. Largemouth are easily identified by their mottled green sides, enormous mouth, and heavy bodies.
Largemouth bass are common in rivers, creeks, and swamps of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. They occur in freshwater areas but also thrive in tidal, brackish habitats.
In the upper bay, largemouth are common from the Susquehanna River to the Susquehanna Flats and along the shoreline of the bay for several miles.
In the Chesapeake they are often found together with striped bass, pickerel, yellow perch, white perch, sunfish, catfish, carp, and northern snakeheads. Largemouth bass eat practically any other available fish species including their own.
Important tidal largemouth bass fisheries exist in the several Chesapeake Bay rivers including the Susquehanna, Back, Gunpowder, Potomac, Patuxent, Rappahannock, James, Nanticoke, Blackwater Complex, Choptank, Wicomico, and Pocomoke.
In some watersheds, largemouth bass appear to be in decline as northern snakehead populations increase.