Bass Fishing Trivia
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175 free Bass Fishing trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Bass fishing is the biggest freshwater sport in America, with a professional tour, half a million B.A.S.S. members and a world record that has stood since 1932. This quiz covers the fish, the people and the gear: how to tell a largemouth from a smallmouth from a spotted bass, who caught the record and what he did with it, how the Bassmaster Classic started on a mystery lake, and where Johnny Morris sold his first tackle. Some questions are easy enough for anyone who has thrown a plastic worm off a dock. Others — the scientific family black bass actually belong to, how many species are in the genus, why Rapala's early sales spiked in 1962, who has the most Angler of the Year titles — are for people who watch weigh-ins on purpose. Every answer has been checked against a published source and each question links to it, so you can settle the argument at the boat ramp.
30 of 175 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Black bass such as the largemouth actually belong to which group of fishes?
Sunfishes (Centrarchidae)
Despite the name, they are Centrarchidae, cousins of the bluegill; striped bass are the real thing.
Q 02The genus that contains all the black bass species is called what?
Micropterus
It currently holds 14 recognized species, all native east of the Rockies from Hudson Bay to northeastern Mexico.
Q 03Which feature identifies a largemouth rather than a smallmouth?
An upper jaw extending past the rear edge of the eye
On a smallmouth the jaw stops beneath the eye, and its coloring runs bronze rather than green.
Q 04Which of these is a common nickname for the largemouth bass?
Bucketmouth
Bucketmouth refers to the largemouth's huge gape; green bass and largie are other nicknames, while bronzeback belongs to the smallmouth and rockfish to the striper.
Q 05Who caught the all-tackle world record largemouth on June 2, 1932?
George Perry
George Perry, a young Georgia farmer, caught the record bass while fishing for food; it was weighed at a general store, entered in a magazine contest and then eaten.
Q 06How much did the 1932 world record largemouth weigh?
22 lb 4 oz
Perry's bass weighed 22 lb 4 oz (10.09 kg); Manabu Kurita's 2009 fish from Japan was under two ounces heavier, so the IGFA lists the two as a tie.
Q 07In which US state was the 1932 record largemouth caught?
Georgia
Georgia's Telfair County produced the fish, from an oxbow slough off the Ocmulgee River south of Helena; a historical marker stands nearby.
Q 08What was the record-setting angler's only reward for his 1932 fish?
$75 of merchandise from a Field & Stream contest
Perry's only prize was $75 of merchandise from Field & Stream's big-fish contest, including a shotgun and shells; the fish itself fed his family.
Q 09Which Japanese lake produced the 2009 largemouth that tied the world record?
Biwa
Manabu Kurita took the 10.12 kg fish from Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake, in 2009, and the IGFA certified the tie the following January.
Q 10The largemouth is the official state freshwater fish of Florida and which other state?
Alabama
Alabama named the largemouth its official freshwater fish in 1975, the same year Florida did; Alabama's saltwater counterpart is the tarpon.
Q 11The smallmouth bass carries which scientific name?
Micropterus dolomieu
It honors the French mineralogist Déodat de Dolomieu — the same man the Dolomites are named after.
Q 12Smallmouth bass are nicknamed 'bronzebacks' and prefer what kind of water compared with largemouth?
Cooler and clearer
Smallmouth favor cooler, clearer water — rocky lakes and current-swept rivers — which is why they dominate the Great Lakes and Ozark streams while largemouth take the warm, weedy shallows.
Q 13The world record smallmouth, 11 lb 15 oz, came from which reservoir in 1955?
Dale Hollow
Q 21Until 1976 the Bassmaster Classic was held on what kind of venue?
A 'mystery lake' revealed only in the air
Anglers boarded a plane not knowing where they were going, so nobody could pre-fish the water.
Q 22Which two anglers share the record of four Bassmaster Classic wins?
Rick Clunn and Kevin VanDam
Clunn won in 1976, 1977, 1984 and 1990; VanDam in 2001, 2005, 2010 and 2011.
Q 23Pro bass legend Kevin 'KVD' VanDam hails from which Michigan city?
Kalamazoo
Kevin VanDam, born in Kalamazoo in 1967, worked at the city's D&R Sports Center tackle shop before turning pro and has lived in the area his whole career.
David Hayes took the 11 lb 15 oz smallmouth from Dale Hollow Reservoir, on the Kentucky-Tennessee line, in July 1955; the record was later disputed, then reinstated.
Q 14Which black bass is the official state fish of Texas?
Guadalupe
The Guadalupe bass, Texas's state fish since 1989, is a small, current-loving black bass found nowhere outside central Texas; even the record fish weighed under four pounds.
Q 15Which parent guards the nest and fry after black bass spawn?
The male
The male sweeps out the bed, coaxes a female to lay, then stands guard until the fry scatter — which is why bed-fishing is controversial.
Q 16Which part of a bass do anglers grip to lift it from the water?
The lower lip
Anglers 'lip' a bass by its lower lip because its teeth are too fine to cut skin; a heavy fish should be held horizontally to avoid straining the jaw.
Q 17A cross between a striped bass and a white bass is commonly called what?
A wiper
Wiper is the common name for the striped bass × white bass hybrid, a hatchery cross stocked widely in reservoirs because it grows fast and fights hard.
Q 18Who founded the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.) in 1967?
Ray Scott
An Alabama insurance man, Scott dreamed up competitive bass fishing and later pushed catch-and-release on the tour.
Q 19Where was the first B.A.S.S. tournament held in June 1967?
Beaver Lake, Arkansas
Ray Scott's All-American Invitational on Beaver Lake, near Springdale, Arkansas, drew 106 anglers from thirteen states in June 1967 and launched tournament bass fishing.
Q 20Where was the first Bassmaster Classic held, in 1971?
Lake Mead, Nevada
The 1971 Classic was fished on Lake Mead, Nevada; Bobby Murray of Arkansas won its $10,000 first prize.
Q 24How many Bassmaster Angler of the Year titles did Kevin VanDam win?
7
He is also the sport's all-time money winner, though Roland Martin still holds the record with nine AOY crowns.
Q 25In 2019, at age 72, Rick Clunn became the oldest angler ever to do what?
Win a Bassmaster Elite Series event
He broke his own record from 2016, and had qualified for 28 consecutive Classics earlier in his career.
Q 26Which legend holds a record nine B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year titles yet never won the Classic?
Roland Martin
Roland Martin won nine Angler of the Year titles between 1971 and 1985 and 19 B.A.S.S. events, yet the Classic eluded him in 25 appearances.
Q 27TV host Bill Dance is instantly recognizable by his sunglasses and a cap from which university?
Tennessee
Dance, a Tennessee native, wears a University of Tennessee Volunteers cap on every show; Bill Dance Outdoors began on a Memphis station in 1968.
Q 28What sets Major League Fishing apart from traditional tournaments?
A referee on each boat weighs and releases every fish immediately
No livewell, no five-fish limit; every scorable bass counts, and MLF bought the FLW tour in 2019.
Q 29In a typical multi-day bass tournament, how many fish does each angler weigh per day?
Their best 5
Anglers weigh their best 5 bass a day, culling smaller fish as bigger ones come aboard; the limit and livewells let the sport grow without emptying lakes.
Q 30Where did Johnny Morris start selling the tackle that became Bass Pro Shops in 1972?
His father's liquor store in Springfield, Missouri
Johnny Morris, then 24, began by selling fishing tackle from eight square feet of shelf space in his father's Brown Derby liquor store in Springfield, Missouri.