![Big Bass Not Always Old]()
Age not only determining factor in size of largemouth bass
By Robert Montgomery, Bassmaster.com
When an angler can see a large bass, but just can’t entice it to bite, he often rationalizes the failure by saying, “Well, it didn’t get that big by being dumb.”
He isn’t talking about size, though. He’s implying that the bass gained wisdom through age.
In other words: “Big” equals “old.”
But in the world of bass, “big” does not equal “old.” In Florida, scientists used otoliths (ear bones) to determine that a 10-pound-plus largemouth was just 4 years old.
By contrast, an angler recently caught and released a 3.5-pound bass in Montana that was judged to be 19 years old...