While a 3-pound spotted bass is considered large in Southern waters, 4- and 5-pounders are not uncommon in some fabled fisheries. (Photo courtesy of Z-Man Fishing)
July 02, 2025
By Shane Beilue
That’s a big one!” I groaned, leaning back hard on my rod as I looked anxiously for the first signs of the bass surging deep in the clear water. Soon, the fish flashed far below as it tested the limits of my 10-pound fluorocarbon line. Eventually, however, the healthy 2 1/2-pound spotted bass gave in to the drag pressure and came to the boat. While the fish fell short of my initial estimate, it proved a fierce fighter, as spots often do.
Though thinner in girth than their chunkier largemouth cousins, spotted bass make up for their size deficiency with their feistiness and aggressive nature, which frequently leads them to strike moving baits with reckless abandon. And they rarely travel alone. Once the first one is located, an angler can often catch multiple spots in short order.
SPOT TENDENCIES In most reservoirs across the South, a spot in the 4-pound range is considered “magnum” size. However, fish in Georgia’s Lake Lanier and Smith
Lake and the famed Coosa River in Alabama can exceed the 5-pound mark. Spotted bass aren’t as widely dispersed throughout southern waterbodies as the largemouth. They thrive in impoundments with water deep and clear where the bottom is rocky. Interestingly, spots are also at home in shallow rivers and streams. When introduced into reservoirs outside of their native water, though, their presence isn’t without some controversy among bass anglers.
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Spotted bass are voracious shad eaters and will often hybridize with native largemouths, thus diminishing the latter’s population. A case in point is tiny Lake Alan Henry in West Texas, which once produced double-digit-weight largemouths at the same rate as famous Lake Fork in East Texas. Since introducing Alabama spots to the reservoir many years ago, however, the numbers of trophy largemouths in Alan Henry’s clear water have rapidly declined.
In many lakes containing spotted bass, most of the remaining largemouth population is pushed into the stained ends of creeks and rivers while the spots take over the deep, clear main basin.
The behavior of spotted bass is, at times, similar to that of a largemouth, often sharing the same habitat of wood cover, boat docks and rock ledges. But spotted bass are also quite transient, following large schools of shad in open water as they migrate throughout a reservoir.
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As with largemouths, understanding the seasonal changes in spotted bass behavior is key to finding them consistently, so here’s a year-round guide to staying on them.
KNOW YOUR SPOTS Not all spotted bass are the same. In fact, there are three distinct subspecies: the Alabama, Kentucky and Choctaw.
Officially recognized in 2008, Alabama spots grow larger than the other subspecies and have been introduced in reservoirs throughout the South and as far away as California. They are native to the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers in Alabama, with the Coosa renowned for the abundance of magnum-size specimens thriving in its currents.
A wacky-rigged stick worm fished on bottom at a depth of 8 to 10 feet, can be effective on spots during the spring spawn. (Photo courtesy of Z-Man Fishing) Natives to the southeastern U.S., as well as Oklahoma and Texas, the Kentucky spotted bass is smaller than the Alabama, rarely exceeding 3 pounds. There are only minor physical differences between the Kentucky and the Alabama, and proper identification requires a magnifying glass to count the tiny pores in the scales along the lateral line. For those willing to count, Alabama spots have more.
Found in the rivers and streams of Florida’s Panhandle, Choctaw spotted bass had gone unnoticed for many years, as they so closely resemble the other subspecies. Biologists researching Florida shoal bass were able to distinguish the genetic difference via DNA testing, the only way to identify Choctaws with certainty.
SPRING FLING The spawning behavior of spotted bass mimics that of largemouths, though in my experience from chasing them for several years, the spots are usually first on the scene when it comes to occupying gravel pockets or flat rocks to bed when water temps approach 60 degrees. Since they typically inhabit clear water, their spawning areas are often deeper than a largemouth’s, usually preferring depths of 15 feet or more. However, seeing the fish beyond that depth becomes a major challenge, even while wearing quality polarized sunglasses.
Calm pockets off the main lake and major tributaries are prime spawning real estate for spots. But as spring wears on, one can find them spawning on gravel points and rock ledges on the main body of water.
Immediately before and after the spawn , spotted bass are highly susceptible to a jerkbait worked across points near their spawning grounds. Clay or rock points between the main lake and a spawning cove would be the ideal location to intercept spots coming and going from their bedding sites.
Another excellent tactic during spawning season is to fish a weightless, wacky-rigged stick worm down steep, rocky shorelines. Allowing the stick worm to sink down to 8 or 10 feet will yield plenty of action, as stretches of steep shoreline near a channel swing are often teeming with spotted bass this time of year. Should the day turn cloudy or breezy, switching to spinnerbaits, soft jerkbaits or square-bill cranks will produce a lot of bites from aggressive spots staging right next to those steep shorelines.
Spotted bass prefer deep, clear waters and will often stage and hunt in groups. (Shutterstock photo) SUMMER SCHOOLS With the arrival of summer’s warmth, large schools of spots will appear in the deeper portion of the main basin of the lake, busting on the surface while chasing schools of shad. The action is sudden and makes for excellent topwater fishing if one can reach the bass with a long cast. Working a small popper quickly out of the bait schools will produce ferocious strikes from the spots below. When the fish settle beneath the surface, they can still be caught by fan-casting a jerkbait or lipless crankbait through the area, though the use of live sonar will allow precision casts to the bass, increasing your chances.
As summer wears on, surface activity declines and the fishing focus in lakes without current shifts to deep water. Spots will frequently feed closer to the lake bottom, requiring anglers to idle over deep points and humps while pinging with down-imaging sonar in depths of 15 to 25 feet until the presence of bait and bass is detected. When the fish are feeding within 10 feet of the bottom, drop-shotting small soft plastics or dragging a shaky head are the most productive techniques. Using forward-facing sonar (FFS), one can pinpoint the drop-shot right into the school of bass. Without FFS, you can turn to the sonar unit on your boat’s console to locate fish and drop a buoy over their location to stay near them.
Offshore brush, whether manmade piles or the ones left standing when the reservoir was filled, is another good way to target spots during summer. Dropping a 3/8-ounce Texas rig with a 6- to 8-inch curl-tail worm into that brush will consistently deliver bites. The maximum depth to look for fish will be dependent upon the depth of the thermocline, that abrupt layer of unoxygenated water below which bass and shad rarely go. Thermocline depth varies by reservoir, but it’s often 15 to 25 feet down in the summer, which limits the target area to search with sonar.
FALL FOOD FOCUS With the arrival of cooler air in the fall, the thermocline will eventually break up, allowing spotted bass to pursue shad as deep as 60 feet. This is a time when spots start to gang up in huge hunting schools to gorge on shad en masse, a tendency that can lead to days with outstanding action.
Lure choice depends upon the depth of the bass, but drop-shots, shaky heads and football jigs fished along the bottom are all excellent choices. When spots are suspended higher in the water column, a jerkbait or a plastic minnow rigged on a jig head and presented above the school can be highly productive, especially for those able to watch the action unfold on live sonar. It’s also wise to have a topwater ready to reach any surface feeding frenzy fostered by the cooler water.
The aggressive nature of spots, and their tendency to compete fiercely for food, makes them susceptible to both soft and hard jerkbaits. (Photo courtesy of Z-Man Fishing) As a seasonal bonus, a smaller percentage of spotted bass will occupy the backs of small feeder creeks off the main lake in the fall, and more will be caught on moving baits in extremely shallow water. In sum, fall is a great time of year to catch large numbers of hungry spots in a variety of ways.
WINTER BITES The cold air and water temps of winter shouldn’t deter the hardcore angler in search of spotted bass, as they can still be caught on cold, blustery days. If using live sonar to look ahead of the boat, presenting a jerkbait or 1/4-ounce jig-head minnow to small groups of three to five bass suspended within 15 feet of the surface is a surefire way to catch them in winter.
When looking for bottom-oriented bass, dragging a 3/4-ounce football jig along the ends of deep, rocky points is a reliable winter pattern. Locating fish while idling with down-scan sonar will enable you to determine the depth at which to focus efforts, which is often as much as 35 or 40 feet.
During the coldest stretch of winter, when water temps drop to the low 40s, one can go against the grain and hunt for big game in the shallows. This is a sneaky way to land some of the biggest spotted bass of the season in water only 2 or 3 feet deep. The key structure then is shallow rock immediately adjacent to a deep drop-off. At various times of the day, quality spots will move up onto shallow rock ledges and subtle outcroppings along a channel swing bank, with the channel being 25 or 30 feet deep. I don’t know whether the bass are basking in the warm sunlight or searching for crawfish, but I’ve caught numerous 3- to 4-pounders by slowly winding a flat-sided crankbait on such extremely shallow rock outcrops.
PROPER IDENTIFICATION They may share home waters and feast on the same forage, but spots and largemouths are distinctly different. Peter Suchiski At first glance, a spotted bass closely resembles a largemouth, but it does have some distinct characteristics in its markings and physical makeup that help differentiate the two gamefish. In fact, the spotted bass’ name is derived from the rows of small, dark spots along its belly, just below the lateral line. The jawline is another identifying trait: A spot’s is shorter and does not extend past the fish’s eye like a largemouth’s. If uncertainty remains in identifying the species, running your fingertip over the fish’s tongue will reveal a coarse texture on a spotted bass, while the tongue of a largemouth is slick.
This article was featured in the June/July 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
