Bass Fishing Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
168 free Bass Fishing trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 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 168 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Black bass such as the largemouth actually belong to which family?
Sunfishes (Centrarchidae)
Sunfishes (Centrarchidae): the word 'bass' comes from a medieval English name for the perch, yet black bass are neither perch nor true bass but big cousins of the bluegill.
Q 02At the first Bassmaster Classic in 1971, who rode in each competitor's boat and fished alongside him?
An outdoor writer
An outdoor writer: Ray Scott invited the press along to interview, photograph and fish beside the 24 qualifiers, reckoning that reporters in the boats would win his new championship more coverage.
Q 03How far back does the upper jaw of a largemouth bass reach?
Past the eye
Past the eye: the upper jaw runs beyond the eye's rear edge, which gave the fish its name and lets anglers tell it from a smallmouth, whose jaw never reaches that far.
Q 04Which of these is a common nickname for the largemouth bass?
Bucketmouth
Bucketmouth nods to the largemouth's huge gape; bronzeback is the smallmouth, rockfish the striped bass, and the warmouth is a separate, smaller sunfish.
Q 05George Perry caught his 1932 world-record largemouth on a Fintail Shiner, a wooden lure made by which company?
Creek Chub
Creek Chub: collectors long credited its Wigglefish, until a taped 1973 interview surfaced in which Perry named the Fintail Shiner, the only lure he and his partner had that day.
Q 06How much did George Perry's 1932 world-record largemouth weigh?
22 lb 4 oz
22 lb 4 oz: it beat the old record by more than two pounds and has never been topped; a later fish from Japan was a shade heavier at 10.12 kg against 10.09, yet counts only as a tie.
Q 07In which US state was the 1932 world-record largemouth bass caught?
Georgia
Georgia: George Perry, a young Telfair County farmer, was fishing to feed his family in the Depression, so the record bass was cleaned and eaten the day he caught it.
Q 08What was George Perry's only reward for his 1932 world-record largemouth?
$75 of gear from Field & Stream
$75 of gear from Field & Stream: someone in town mentioned the magazine's big-fish contest, which is the only reason Perry had his catch weighed and measured at all.
Q 09Which Japanese lake produced the 2009 largemouth that tied the world record?
Biwa
Biwa: Manabu Kurita's bait was a live bluegill, an American import like the bass itself, and the two species now crowd the native fish of Japan's largest lake.
Q 10The largemouth is the official state freshwater fish of Florida and which other state?
Alabama
Alabama: the tarpon had held its state-fish title since 1955, so in 1975 the largemouth was added beside it as the official freshwater fish.
Q 11The smallmouth bass is named in Latin for a French geologist who also gave his name to which mountain range?
The Dolomites
The Dolomites: Déodat de Dolomieu had just been freed from 21 months in a Sicilian cell when a friend named the fish in his honour, and he died before the description reached print.
Q 12Compared with largemouth, smallmouth bass prefer what kind of water?
Cooler and clearer
Cooler and clearer: smallmouth keep to rocky lakes and current-swept rivers, and in summer heat they slide into deeper, faster water while largemouth hold in warm, weedy shallows.
Q 13The world record smallmouth, 11 lb 15 oz, came from which reservoir in 1955?
Dale Hollow
Q 21Until 1977 the Bassmaster Classic used what kind of venue?
A 'mystery lake' revealed only in the air
A 'mystery lake' revealed only in the air: anglers boarded a flight not knowing where they would fish, so nobody could scout the water; the venue was announced from 1977 so fans could attend.
Q 22How did Jim Bitter, leading the 1989 Bassmaster Classic, lose it on the final day?
He dropped a bass overboard
He dropped a bass overboard: Bitter had just unhooked and measured the keeper when it slipped away and flopped back into the river, and he lost the title by only a couple of ounces.
Q 23Pro bass legend Kevin 'KVD' VanDam hails from which Michigan city?
Dale Hollow: David Hayes caught the fish there in July 1955; the IGFA struck the record in the 1990s over a tampering claim, found the claim untrue and reinstated it in 2005.
Q 14Which black bass is the official state fish of Texas?
Guadalupe
Guadalupe bass: Texas honoured a fish found nowhere else, a black bass that never grows large because it is built for small, fast-flowing streams rather than lakes.
Q 15Which parent guards the nest and fry after black bass spawn?
The male
The male: he sweeps out the nest, drives his mate away once she has laid, then guards the eggs and the newly hatched fry alone until they scatter.
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
A wiper: the name blends white bass and striper, and fish farmers favour the cross because it stands warm water and low oxygen better than either parent, so it is easier to raise in ponds.
Q 18Which 23-year-old club angler in 1994 became the first amateur qualifier to win the Bassmaster Classic?
Bryan Kerchal
Bryan Kerchal qualified through his local bass club, then beat the pros by working a plastic worm around boat docks; he died in a plane crash about five months later.
Q 19Where was the first B.A.S.S. tournament held in June 1967?
Beaver Lake, Arkansas
Beaver Lake, Arkansas: Ray Scott wanted bass fishing to stand on a par with golf, so he ran his All-American there under strict rules, a break from the loosely run local derbies of the day.
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.
Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo: VanDam made speed his trademark, firing fast-moving spinnerbaits and crankbaits to cover far more water than his rivals, a style known as power fishing.
Q 24In 2019, at age 72, Rick Clunn became the oldest angler ever to do what?
Win a Bassmaster Elite Series event
Win a Bassmaster Elite Series event: Clunn sealed it with two nine-pound bass on the final day, three years after telling fans never to accept that their best moments are behind them.
Q 25Which legend holds a record nine B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year titles yet never won the Classic?
Roland Martin
Roland Martin: he is credited with coining 'pattern fishing' in 1969, the idea that bass found under one set of conditions will be holding in similar spots all over the lake.
Q 26TV host Bill Dance is instantly recognizable by his sunglasses and a cap from which university?
Tennessee
Tennessee: Dance wears the Volunteers' orange and white on air, and he was headed for a career in medicine until he came upon a grisly motorcycle crash and changed his mind.
Q 27What set Major League Fishing apart from traditional tournaments at its launch?
Every bass was weighed aboard and released
Every bass was weighed aboard and released: a referee in each boat scored the catch on the spot, so anglers watched a live leaderboard instead of waiting for a dockside weigh-in.
Q 28In a typical multi-day bass tournament, how many fish does each angler weigh per day?
Their best 5
Their best 5: the fish must reach the scales alive, since a dead one draws a weight penalty or is not weighed at all, and the catch is released after the weigh-in.
Q 29Where did Johnny Morris first sell the fishing tackle that grew into Bass Pro Shops?
His father's liquor store
His father's liquor store: Morris set up a small tackle display at the back of a Brown Derby shop in Springfield, Missouri, and passing anglers were soon phoning in orders from home.
Q 30Which outdoor retailer did Bass Pro Shops acquire in 2017?
Cabela's
Cabela's: Bass Pro agreed a multibillion-dollar deal for its Nebraska catalog rival in 2016, and many Cabela's stores have since been rebranded as Bass Pro Shops.