Largemouth vs. Smallmouth: Which Bass is Best?

Largemouth are overall a green-olive color—very dark green to almost black on their backs, fading down their sides to a creamy yellow or off-white belly. And splitting their side horizontally is a broad, slightly blotchy, dark bar from behind the gill plate to the start of the tail.

Their build is generally stout and strong, but they’re a little bit pudgy and soft around the edges. They have darker colored, fairly broad tail and broad fins, all rounded at the corners. And of course, they have a large mouth that can open almost as wide as the diameter of their body. For identification purposes it’s important to note that when the mouth is closed, the corner hinge between upper and lower lip rests further back along the side of the body than the positioning of their eye.

Largemouth are primarily an ambush hunter. They are built for short, powerful, bursts of speed, and shockingly agile turning and maneuvering through heavy cover.

Overall, not unattractive, but the largemouth is certainly not a visually dazzling specimen. They’re kind of like an army Jeep—built to get the job done.

Smallmouth Looks:

Smallmouth are generally bronze or brown tone with examples from some waters displaying a greenish cast. Like largemouth, the color fades from dark along their backs to light tan on white on their bellies. Smallmouth show darker, vertical, interlocking bars on their sides, sort of like tiger stripes but not nearly as neat and organized. However these vertical stripes can come and go based on lighting and environment, so sometimes a smallmouth has no stripes.

While there are examples, mostly from the Great Lakes, of fish with a very full, tall-sided, giant profile, generally smallmouth are longer and leaner than largemouth. Their fins are a reddish-brown and more angular in shape with sharper corners. Their eye color can vary from brown to red. And, while their mouth opens wide, it is proportionately smaller than that of a largemouth. When their mouth is closed the corner of the jaw does not extend past the back of the eye. And if you’ve ever lipped a smallmouth bass, you’ve noticed their mouth is much harder and more muscular than a largemouth’s.

Smallmouth bass are more athletic than largemouth. They’re far more inclined to chase prey through open water. And obviously, they have tons of endurance.

In summary, smallmouth are a fairly visually appealing animal, in an autumnal, rustic, Northwoods-y sort of way.

Looks winner?

Smallmouth are just a cooler looking fish. It seems pretty indisputable. Smallmouth win the looks category.

Round 2. The Fight – Power vs. Acrobatics

Largemouth Fight:

Largemouth can strike a lure hard with a good solid thump. And if you’re talking about topwater baits, the water can explode when they hit.

Once they’ve got your lure they’ll make a few powerful lunges and short bulldogging runs. If there’s cover nearby, they’ll try to get in it. Most will then come to the surface, for a powerful head-shake above the surface, but very few actually get their whole body into the air. And in all but the biggest fish, the fight is relatively short-lived.

Smallmouth Fight:

Smallmouth are also capable of generating a solid thump on your line, and explosive topwater bites. And they’ll stop a jerkbait so solidly, you’ll swear you just snagged a submerged locomotive.

Once hooked, smallmouth are well known for their “never give up” attitude. You’ll feel a few initial, pit bull-style head shakes, then short powerful runs pulling toward the bottom. When that doesn’t get them free, they’ll take to the sky with a series of multiple jumps. Many times I’ve seen them jump to nearly my eye-level. And then when you think they’ve given up, they start making fast, powerful surges under the boat, digging toward the bottom again. Eventually, you’re forced to grab a fish that isn’t done fighting yet.

Fight Winner?

This one probably doesn’t require much debate. Smallmouth bass are the better fighters of the two species, without question. Smallmouth win the fight category.

Round 3. The Gear – What It Takes to Catch Each

Largemouth Gear:

Largemouth are generally aggressive, opportunistic feeders with a mouth big enough to swallow anything slightly smaller than them. Twelve-inch worms and swimbaits as big as a tennis shoe are often reasonable choices.

Of course as competition and fishing pressure has increased on many lakes, seeing largemouth bass caught on tiny lures thrown on spinning gear with light line has become more common. Yes, you’ll need a spinning rod for a jig minnow, or a Ned, Neko or drop shot rig, but you can’t throw a deep crankbait, a glide bait, a vibrating jig, an Alabama rig, a frog, or a punch bait without baitcasting. Medium to heavy baitcasting gear is still the standard for largemouth bass fishing.

There are occasions where finesse is the only way, but there are even more times where power techniques get explosive action.

Smallmouth Gear:

Smallmouth bass are more curious by nature, and seem to rely more on their site for feeding than largemouth. They also have a tendency to live in schools more often and compete with each other for food. However, they also have that smaller mouth. It doesn’t mean they won’t take a shot at a big bait on occasion, but for consistent success you need to rely on smaller baits.

Also, more often smallmouth will be found in clear water environments, sometimes gin clear. Those situations require much lighter, thinner lines and small, subtle baits, so the bass are less likely to detect the fakery. And in order to cast and control those finesse presentations, you’re going to need spinning gear. And you're going to likely be tying leaders to braided line—just a little extra rigging you'll need to do.

The jig minnow, drop shot rig, Ned rig, and Neko rig are very standard offerings. But like largemouth, smallmouth love jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and topwater baits. So you will still need a couple baitcasting outfits to cover all the bases.

Gear Winner?

To catch both species consistently, an angler is required to be handy with both baitcasting and spinning gear. Baitcasting requires you to learn how to cast without causing a backlash, but once you’ve got that, your casts can be much more accurate, controlled and efficient. Plus you have more power and control over a hooked fish. As for the lures used, burning, twitching, popping and cranking beat subtly shaking, every day.

I could try to make some counter points, but whose article is this? For me, this one is obvious and easy. Baitcasting gear wins. And therefore, largemouth win this round.

Round 4. The Locations – Legendary Waters for Each

Largemouth Hotspots:

If you imagine an absolutely classic lake for largemouth bass fishing, it’s probably loaded with cover—both weedy and woody. It’s likely fairly shallow, with low-to-no current, and water that’s murky to maybe medium-clear. You can see miles of lily pads, flooded forests of timber, and/or thousands of docks. But largemouth bass also thrive in nearly every body of water in the US, from the Mississippi River to every retention pond in every community, coast-to-coast.

Lakes like Okeechobee in Florida, Toledo Bend on the Texas/Louisiana border, Guntersville in Alabama, and Clear Lake in California lead most lists of largemouth fishing, bucket list, dream trips.

Smallmouth Hotspots:

Classic smallmouth waters tend to be bigger, deeper and clearer. The shorelines are rocky and rugged. In many cases you can see the silhouettes of pine trees along the shore. These lakes, including some of the Great Lakes, freeze most winters, but they’re absolutely bursting with life in the summer.

For most smallmouth anglers, destinations like Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair, the St. Lawrence River on the New York/Canada border, Lake Michigan around the Door County peninsula, and Mille Lacs in Minnesota all have that look and feel of classic smallmouth water. But you can’t count out some southern reservoirs like Pickwick in Alabama and Dale Hollow in Tennessee where the 11 pound, 15 ounce world record was caught.

Location Winner?

Personally I don’t love taking a relatively tiny bass boat onto the virtual seas that are the Great Lakes, but when the weather cooperates they are an absolutely beautiful place to be. But so are all those warm, humid, slow-moving environments, just packed with lush, green vegetation that harbor the world’s best largemouth fishing. Although again, this category could be argued as a tie, the bass fishing heaven I picture in my head looks more like Santee Cooper than it looks like Green Bay. Decision, largemouth.

Conclusion – The Winner

For beauty, athleticism, stamina, and wild spirit, the smallmouth wins.

For their aggressive willingness to eat almost anything, their ease of availability, and their comfy surroundings making a beautiful place to spend a day fishing, not to mention a mountain of fishing legend and lore, the largemouth is the winner.

Personally, I’ve always said the smallmouth is the better fish but I enjoy everything else about fishing for largemouth better.

The Judge's Decision

So after all that it’s a tie. Are they both equally worthy opponents for bass anglers? Or are you Team Green or Team Bronze?

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