Since this is not an environment for catching Shoal Bass, there are no techniques for lake fishing and we don’’t even recommend even trying to look for them here.

Lake Fishing?

Shoal bass are found in river habitats with moderate to fast-flowing rivers in and around shoals and riffles. They do not care for lakes and reservoirs and while some may have been caught in these environments, these are not ideal environments for catching Shoal Bass.

While they can be found in lakes and reservoirs occasionally, this is due to misguided attempts to introduce them to these habitats. Or, they may be carried away by the current.

Limited Distribution

As we mentioned earlier in the introduction and distribution sections, the Shoal Bass is a species of concern due to its limited range and the movement of man into its habitat through the construction of dams and other structures.

They are only found in the river waters of Alabama, Georgia and North Florida. In 2006, the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries band harvesting of Shoal Bass in order to protect the species. Alabama is going further to protect the species by collecting shoal bass fry and introducing them into other Alabama rivers to reinvigorate the species.

Home range

The Department of Fisheries, at Auburn University, tagged two dozen Shoal Bass with radio tags to determine how far they actually vary about in their habitat.

The tags lasted about 250 days. Now the Shoal Bass has not been the recipient of many studies due to its limited habitat so it was surprising to find out that over the better part of a year that out of the 24 Shoal Bass in the study, the furthest any one bass travelled was half a mile (~1KM). On average, they managed to stay within a 200 yard of where they were tagged.

Techniques

Since this is not an environment for catching Shoal Bass, there are no techniques for lake fishing and we don’’t even recommend even trying to look for them here. The best place to find Shoal Bass are in rivers that have low to moderate flowing rivers in shoals and riffles.