Bronze back Bass???

Yesterday while out on the Willamette, my friend and I gave up on the Salmon and decided to play with the Sturgeon CNR. We hooked a few Sturgeon and landed a couple of shakers. My buddy hooked into what we thought was a small Sturgeon. When he brought it to the surface we were surprised to See a gold/bronze Large mouth bass of good size.

I would not of thought that they were in the Willi. AND I wouldn't of thought that it would of been at 50 plus feet of water.  Was this a fluke?

When I Google Bronzeback all references are to Smallmouth Bass. You gotta get photos when you get a nice fish like that. What length and weight were you estimating?

Yes, I know. I have to start to bring my camera. But the question still stands. It wasn't a bottom feeder but do bass go that deep?

Wobbler

Largemouth have a highly visible dark stripe along their lateral line, smallmouth have have several vertical black stripes.

Are you going out early in the morning? I'm probably not going to make it to the Willy, may just hit Lacamas.

Going out to Forest Grove at 7:30 AM to pick up the Sturgeon Poles and Lead donated to HOW. He wanted them picked up before 8:00 AM.  Probably will not hit the water until Tuesday.

Cool, thanks. Let's try to get together Tuesday.

Rarity in PacNW to find big largemouth like that. Yes they do go deep but not normally over 100 ft. Whats out of norm there is that you found it in a river at that depth. Mostly largemouth are lake dwellers.

So, yes they get that big, yes they go that deep.  You just happened on to one that adapted to severely changed conditions for its species.

Can you give an estimate on size and weight?

Bronzeback?  Are you sure it wasn't a carp?    those are fun too!

I am not sure about large mouth, but I have found small mouth bass in unlikely places before.

I caught one while down rigging for salmon in the Great Lakes. 

I was fishing at 45 feet in 100-150 feet of water about 2 miles out into the lake.   

It was only a 1.5 lb bass that bit a 5" northern king spoon. 

I scratched my head and threw it back. 

Slow day at work. Just double checked the differences between large and smallmouth.  More than likely it was a smallie.

It coulda been a largemouth, big largemouth in the Willamette system aren't a rarity. Most of them do however hang out in the slow backwaters, sloughs and lagoons.  There's some big smallies hangin around too.