Bass Fish: Which Fish Are Bass, Taste, Bait and Names

Bass is not one kind of fish. It is a common name shared by several families that are not closely related. Wikipedia traces the word to the Middle English bars, meaning perch. The main groups:

• Black basses (genus Micropterus, sunfish family): largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass. Freshwater, and the most popular game fish in North America. See freshwater bass.
• Temperate basses: striped bass, white bass and the European seabass sold as branzino.
• Sea basses and basslets (family Serranidae): black sea bass and many small reef fish; the same family as the groupers.
• Asian seabasses (family Lateolabracidae): the Japanese seabass and blackfin seabass.
• Giant sea bass: its own family, Stereolepididae, related to the wreckfish family Polyprionidae.

Two fish are bass in name only. Chilean sea bass is a trade name for the Patagonian toothfish, and peacock bass are cichlids from South America; see peacock bass.

No. Sea bass is a restaurant and market name that covers several different fish, and none of them is the largemouth or smallmouth bass an angler catches in a lake.

• A US menu's black sea bass is a Serranidae from the Atlantic
• Branzino is European seabass, a temperate bass
• Chilean sea bass is Patagonian toothfish

If you want to know which one you have, the scientific name on the label or supplier sheet is the only reliable guide.

It depends which bass. The ones sold as seafood are prized. Fulton Fish Market describes branzino as mild and sweet with flaky meat, striped bass as white, flaky and meaty with a slightly sweet, briny taste, black sea bass as pure white and rich with a buttery flavour, and Chilean sea bass as smooth and buttery.

Mercury advice also differs by species. The FDA puts black sea bass among its Best Choices (2 to 3 servings a week for adults), and ocean striped bass and Chilean sea bass among its Good Choices (1 serving a week).

Freshwater black bass are a different case. State advisories usually suggest eating them less often than panfish. Minnesota's statewide guideline, for example, is 1 serving of bass a week for most adults and 1 a month for children and pregnant people (Minnesota Department of Health, August 2026). Check the advisory for the water where your fish was caught.

The best bait copies what bass already eat. The US Fish and Wildlife Service lists adult largemouth prey as fish, crayfish and frogs, and notes they will also take snakes and mice. Wikipedia describes bass lures as imitations of baitfish, worms, crayfish and frogs.

That gives a simple starting point:

• Live bait: minnows or other small fish, nightcrawlers, crayfish
• Soft plastics: worms and crayfish imitations, fished slowly along the bottom
• Hard baits: crankbaits and swimbaits that look like baitfish
• Topwater: frog and mouse imitations over weeds in warm weather

Water temperature matters as much as the bait. USFWS reports that largemouth stop feeding below about 41F or above 98.6F, and spawn in spring when the water reaches 59 to 75F, when males guard round nests and strike at anything that comes close.

Spanish has no single name for the largemouth bass. Spanish Wikipedia gives perca atruchada, perca americana, perca negra, huro, lubina negra and lobina, and notes that the English black bass is also used.

This matters if you fish Mexican reservoirs or read Spanish-language fishing reports, because the same fish can appear under any of these names.

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed below. Every number names the organisation it comes from; where sources disagree we say so rather than pick one silently. Rules and advisories change, so treat the dates given here as the date we checked. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it.