Largemouth Bass
Micropterus salmoides
The Chesapeake's tidal rivers hold a largemouth fishery that would be famous anywhere else. The Potomac, the Sassafras, the upper Bush and Gunpowder — all of it is legitimate bass water, and the tidal element makes it a different game from a lake.
Tide is the whole thing. A spot that is loaded on a falling tide can be barren two hours later, because the current that pulls bait out of the grass turns the feeding on and off. Local anglers do not fish spots so much as fish stages of tide, working an area on the water level that concentrates fish and then moving with the water rather than staying put.
Grass, pads, docks, and laydowns hold them. In the upper rivers they now share that cover with snakeheads, and it is not unusual to catch both on the same frog in the same afternoon.
Gear for this fish