The fight didn’t last long, maybe a couple of minutes, but it was exciting. Between several bulldog runs that stripped line from the reel, the fish broke the surface and walked on water, shaking its head in anger at a wad of foam and feathers that pierced its lip.
All that tail-walking must have sapped its strength. With fury depleted, the fish allowed itself to be steered out of the current. Kent Edmonds pinched its lower lip between his thumb and forefinger, and a broad grin broke across his face as he carefully lifted a chunky shoal bass for appraisal before release.
It was a decent fish, maybe 14 inches long with a guesstimated weight of a pound and a half. Still, on a 6-weight fly rod, the strength of the fight rivaled that of a largemouth bass twice its size. Shoal bass are aggressive and pugnacious. They are the most intriguing sport fish you’ve probably never heard of.
Shoal Bass
Fishing for shoal bass is so much fun, especially with a fly rod. They exhibit the aggression of more well-known black bass, like largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass, yet their preferred habitat is in rivers, in the swiftwater shoals other bass avoid. Like trout, they hover in current breaks and dart out to grab prey items adrift in the current. They readily attack topwater lures and flies, and they grow to record weights approaching nine pounds.