Georgia anglers are fortunate to have so many different types of the black bass species in the state’s waters. Georgia is the only state in the nation with as many as six of the nine black bass species (ten if you count the Northern and Florida strain as different largemouth species) within state waters.

You only have to leave the state to catch three black species and that is the Guadalupe bass which resides only in Texas, the Alabama spotted bass only found in Alabama and the newly identified Choctaw bass. Another possible bass species is the Bartram bass that found in the Savanah River but I have been unable to confirm that it is an entirely new recognized bass species.

The Choctaw bass (genus Micropterus) was confirmed as a new black bass species in 2013. The Choctaw bass was originally found in the Chipola River in Florida in 2007 but scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Service did not initially realize that the fish was in fact a completely different species of black bass.

The Choctaw bass is similar in appearance to the spotted bass but DNA testing confirmed that this fish was an entirely different species of black bass. Differences between this new bass species and the closely related spotted bass are not easy to see, which is why the distinction between them was never made before.

The name Choctaw was chosen because the range of the Choctaw bass overlaps that of the Choctaw Indians. The range of the Choctaw bass includes coastal river systems in Alabama, along the Florida panhandle including the Choctawhatchee River and possibly in southern Mississippi.

The six black bass species found in Georgia waters include largemouth, smallmouth, shoal, spotted, redeye and Suwannee bass. On local lakes Oconee and Sinclair the largemouth bass is the dominant black bass species. Occasionally an angler might catch a redeye bass on Lake Oconee or Lake Sinclair and spotted bass are now definitely in Lake Oconee and Lake Sinclair in very small numbers.

Georgia also has the distinction of sharing the world record for the largest largemouth bass ever caught. The 22 pound, 4 ounce largemouth bass caught in 1932 in Montgomery Lake off the Ocmulgee River by George Cochran was tied by Japanese angler Manabu Kurita in 2009.

That record tying largemouth bass was caught in Japan’s Lake Biwa. Many folks expected the new world record would come from California and the record was threatened a number of times in recent years from that state but so far none of those fish have broken the record.

I have caught six or seven of the black bass species, leaving only the Guadalupe bass and possibly the Choctaw bass being absent from my creel. The newly identified Choctaw bass inhabited the creeks and rivers where I grew up and I possibly caught also that species as a youngster.

I have also caught both the Northern and Florida strain of the largemouth bass. I fished the Suwannee River a few years ago and caught several bass that I believe were Suwannee bass however I did not positively identify them as Suwannee bass. However catching a Guadalupe bass might not be possible for me since that would require a trip to the hill country of Texas.

Four of the seven black bass can be easily caught in waters as close as 35-50 miles from the local area. Northern strain largemouth can be caught from either Lake Oconee or Lake Sinclair, shoal bass can be caught from the Ocmulgee River, spotted bass can be caught from Lake Jackson and redeye bass can be caught in tributaries that feed into both Lakes Oconee and Sinclair (good spots in Lake Sinclair for redeye bass include the upper reaches of Murder Creek and Little River).

Two other regions of Georgia within a day’s drive have two other members of the black bass species. Some lakes and rivers in Northern Georgia have populations of smallmouth bass and some rivers like the Withlacoochee and Alapaha in Southern Georgia have populations of Suwannee bass.

Problems do exist for anglers in correctly identifying the various black bass species and avoiding hybridization that occurs between some black bass species like Northern/Florida strain bass and spotted/smallmouth bass that do hybridize. Identifying pure strains might require the help of a fisheries biologist. Good fishing and see you next week.

Outdoor columnist Bobby Peoples can be contacted via e-mail at brpeoples@windstream.net.