If a questionable bass doesn't have red eyes, don't discount it, either. The Redeye Bass is another member of the group known as black bass. I don’t know that they are found in any streams in Alabama. Redeyes are The water really didn’t feel that big once we started fishing and it didn’t take long to get into fish. The female lays eggs in a nest prepared and guarded by the male. Techniques, Tackle, and flies used are written in a well organized way. Blake got on the board first with a decent Alabama bass.Soon after I caught my first Tallapoosa bass, who took a buggy olive stonefly imitation I was hanging off the back of a hopper pattern.I followed that up with another Tallapoosa bass, this one though was loaded with iridescent blues, it was a beautiful specimen, no doubt the prettiest fish of the day for me.Blake soon caught a Tallapoosa bass of his own and the pressure of getting that first fish of the slam was off for both of us.After that it didn’t take long for Blake to upgrade his Alabama bass. Goes into great detail as to what one can expect on each trail and sight. A bit of backstory for anyone interested:Of course any time I’m planning a fishing trip I ask Blake if he wants in and usually it doesn’t take a whole lot of convincing to get him aboard. The big Alabama bass would be the largest fish of the trip that was caught and if you’ve been following the blog the past few years that’s just par for the course for “Big Fish Blake”.The action slowed down after the big fish, Blake and I did manage to pull out a few more redeye before the day was done, including one by Blake that pushed the 12″ mark. They prefer a water temperature of roughly 65 degrees. A bass with red eyes doesn't necessarily mean you have a redeye. It has green bands and a deep bronze back. We’re small water guys and even though this was a tributary it initially felt like big water. Either way, it was a fine fish.After things went flat we got off the water and hit the road toward our first campsite. With the gaminess and strength of this smaller member of the black bass group, they have become and will continue to gain popularity.Although the Redeye is small, it is a very tough, strong and gamey sport fish that many people believe makes great table fare. It was an awesome road trip through the state where we fished and camped on all sides of Birmingham. It has affectionately been called âthe brook trout of game fishâ due to its feistiness. Ribeye and beers that we bought at I’m happy to report we were able to successfully set up camp and get a fire going before dark and before long we were tearing into some seriously good steaks. At least that’s what we estimated it to be, we measured it against the rod, but truth be told I’m not sure we ever went back and measured the rod.
Recently, redeye bass abundance in this reservoir declined concomitantly with the establishment of angler-introduced Micropterus punctulatus henshalli (Alabama spotted bass). Like many other fish, the Redeye is a carnivore. The eat insects when they are young but will feed on crayfish and other smaller fish as they mature. We settled on early May to at least complete the Alabama portion of the slam as we’d be hammock camping and anyone from the south knows the further you get into summer the more unbearable it is to be outside, let alone try to sleep.One thing that the redeye book lacks is any kind of range map of where you may find the fish, so embedded above is a map I created of the watersheds where redeye bass live in Alabama. If you love fishing for red eye bass this book is for you!
In order to try and catch the 4 different Mobile Basin redeye species in a 4-day trip we set out before dawn on Thursday and drove 6.5 hours to where we’d fish that afternoon for our first redeye species, the Tallapoosa bass.We fished a tributary to the Tallapoosa River that was loaded with shoals and grass with lots of shallow and deep water throughout – great river bass habitat.