Smallmouth Bass

About Smallmouth Bass

Smallmouth Bass go by a few other names in different parts of the country, Black Bass, Brown Bass, and Bronzeback. They’re easy to tell apart from their Largemouth cousin by size, color, and attitude. Smallmouth run smaller than Largemouth overall, but they more than make up for it with how hard they fight once hooked. Unlike Largemouth, which favor woody cover, Smallmouth prefer rocky shoreline, which happens to describe a huge number of Utah’s best reservoirs perfectly.

Interesting Facts

• Smallmouth aren’t picky eaters. Their diet includes insects, crayfish, other fish, and any careless creature that can fit into its mouth. They’re truly opportunistic predators.
• Flaming Gorge’s Smallmouth population is unusual even by national standards. Studies have found it has some of the slowest growth rates ever recorded for the species, paired with some of the longest lifespans. 
• Lake Powell’s Smallmouth actually trace back to Flaming Gorge. Fish from the Gorge were used to stock the Wahweap warm-water hatchery once it stopped producing Striped Bass, and some natural downstream movement likely happened too.
• The state record Smallmouth Bass weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces, caught at Midview Reservoir by Alan Iorg in 1996. For comparison the world record smallmouth came in at 10-pound-14-ounces.

Stocking History

Smallmouth Bass aren’t native to Utah. The first attempts to establish them in the state happened between 1912 and 1914, though the species didn’t really take off statewide until decades later. Flaming Gorge received Smallmouth in the late 1960s specifically to help control a growing Utah Chub population, the same management logic behind several other Utah stocking programs. At Lake Powell, Smallmouth were introduced as the reservoir’s Largemouth-friendly cover gradually disappeared, giving biologists a rock-oriented alternative species better suited to the changing habitat.

More recently, Flaming Gorge has become the site of a genuinely interesting cross-border conservation effort. While the Utah side of the reservoir has a thriving Smallmouth population, the Wyoming side has struggled — largely because of the illegally introduced Burbot now established there, which competes with Smallmouth for crayfish and preys on them during Utah’s winter months when Smallmouth go dormant. In response, Utah DWR and Wyoming Game and Fish have worked together to physically relocate excess Smallmouth from the Utah side of the Gorge over to the struggling Wyoming side — a genuinely rare example of anglers volunteering to help move fish between two states’ water in the same reservoir.

Where to Find Them

Smallmouth Bass are now established in a wide range of Utah waters, including:

• Flaming Gorge Reservoir — widely considered the best overall Smallmouth fishery in the state
• Lake Powell
• Jordanelle Reservoir — known for some of the biggest Smallmouth in Utah, with 4+ pound fish common
• Starvation Reservoir
• Deer Creek, Rockport, Echo, East Canyon, and Pineview Reservoirs
• Willard Bay Reservoir
• Minersville, Newcastle, Otter Creek, and Piute Reservoirs
• Midview and Bullock Reservoirs

How to Fish

Lures

Soft plastics that imitate crayfish or minnows are the go-to choice for Smallmouth almost everywhere in Utah. Few anglers bother fishing bait for this species at all. Surface lures are particularly productive early in the morning and again in the evening, when Smallmouth are more willing to chase something moving across the top of the water.

Fishing Regulations

Limits vary by water. Flaming Gorge, for example, currently allows 10 fish. Always check the current Utah Fishing Guidebook for the specific water you’re headed to.