Where is the best smallmouth fishing in Texas? Smallmouth bass are often thought of as a Northern Fish but actually thrive in Southern locations as long as the habitat and forage are compatiible with their typical environment.
Tim Holschlag, author of River Smallmouth Fishing, says that smallmouth bass can thrive in the warm water environments and grow to impressive sizes due to a longer feeding cycle than they would have during the colder Northern climates.
Best Smallmouth Fishing In Texas
From the Texas Fishing Forum, here is a nice little thread about smallmouth fishing in the DFW area.
I’ve been wanting to go small mouth fishing for a while. Where are some good bodies of water with them close to DFW? I was thinking of hitting up lake Murray. I hear it has a good amount of small mouth, LMB, and walleye. Anybody here fish lake Murray or have any other suggestions?
Devils river!!(i wish i could float it atm) My Lake Whitney used to have nice Smallies in it.PB SMB 5.8lbs now i have not even heard of someone catching any SMB from Whitney. Texoma has some SMB ,lake record i believe is 7 lbs.
Todd, Texoma has a very healthy population.
I have heard some folks catching some out of grapevine as well
There’s a few in Wheeler Branch as well.
Got to do the Devils. Some really nice smallies Source
In addition to the above discussion, other lakes in Texas with healthy populations of smalllmouth bass include:
Lake Merideth, Lake Texoma, Belton Lake, AmistadLake, Bridgeport Source
Texas has some nice sized smallmouth bass and the top 50 recorded catches are recorded by the state fish and boat commission . I have provided the top 15. Click on the link below for the complete list!
Top 50 Smallmouth Bass
Rank Water Body Weight (lb.) Length (in.) Date Angler State Record Water Record
1 Meredith 7.93 23 03/13/1998 Timothy Teague X X
2 Whitney 7.72 22 11/20/1988 Ronald Gardner X
3 Whitney 7.68 23.25 10/14/1997 Ronald Gardner
4 Whitney 7.55 24.25 12/18/1997 Ronald Gardner
5 Whitney 7.46 25.13 03/09/1994 Ronald Gardner
6 Bridgeport 7.41 23 03/21/1997 Mike Roberts X
7 Whitney 7.37 23.38 10/28/1996 Ronald Gardner
8 Whitney 7.25 21 01/04/1998 Darrell Ferguson
9 Whitney 7.21 25 02/11/1996 Ron Gardner
10 Whitney 7.06 23.13 04/06/1995 Ronald Gardner
10 Texoma 7.06 22.75 01/29/2006 Jay Fuller X
12 Brazos River 7 22.5 05/07/1997 Chris Shafer X
12 Greenbelt 7 21 08/03/1991 Jim Braswell X
14 Whitney 6.96 23.5 10/04/1995 Gary Payne
15 Whitney 6.94 24.25 12/25/1998 Gary Mitchell Source
I was surprised at the size and prevalence of smallmouth bass in Texas. Most of what I have read in the past about bass fishing in Texas discussed the introduction of the Florida smallmouth bass into the lakes in Texas, producing king sized largemouth bass. If you have an opinion of the best smallmouth fishing in Texas, please leave your comments below. I’d love to hear from you!
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