Since three-forth of the world is composed of bodies of water, it's natural that a great number of people rely on fishing for their livelyhood or just for their recreation needs. There are numerous of fish species swimming under the lakes, seas, ponds, and rivers. Most anglers consider fishing as the delight in their purpose-driven life, a sport, as they say.

Bass fishing, at present, is considered as America's number one freshwater sport, its industry is in fact seventy percent higher in growth compared to other types of fishing activities. Bass is a fish that belongs to the Serranidae family or sea basses and the Centrarchidae or the black basses. This family of perchlike fishes are large and oblong with compressed bodies that dwell in warm and temperate seas throughout the world.

Along the Atlantic coast, black or common sea basses a sluggish bottom fish are found. Its size averages 6 pounds or 2.7 kilograms in weight and 18 inches or 45 centimetres in length. The Pacific Sea basses, on the other hand, are giant fishes with bulky characteristics that reach a weight of 600 pounds or 270 kilograms and a length of 7 feet or 2.1 metres.

There are two things that should be considered in bass fishing, which are, the bass location on the lake or river and bass catching using different techniques, presentations and baits.

In locating bass dwellings, there are lots of different factors that have to be determined like map-reading, how to locate active bass just after cold fronts and during early spring and late fall periods, understanding water depth, water clarity, temperatures, seasonal patterns, locating structure areas and finding their vegetation areas.

In map reading, there are two general types of lake maps that most anglers use. These are the Hot Spot maps that show more fishing spots and the Topographical map which shows more details. Experiment first by taking it on shore and looking for areas where fish are most likely be. The next step would be familiarization.

In locating bass one element that should be considered is the vegetation or the area where they eat, breath and cover themselves. In other words, it is where they could be found to congregate. If there is no vegetation, other elements like irregular contours, shallow water close to deep-water areas, points and point drops and other types of structure can require alternative techniques.

The rest of the necessities are the selection of a few crankbaits. One needs a shallow diver and a deep diver but two colors of each are fine. A natural looking crankbait, one that resembles baitfish and a shocker bright one should be selected. These represent the two extremes, nonetheless are very effective.

The most successful method of catching bass is the crankbait. The throwing and retrieving method can be done with varying speed and its depth can be determined by the speed of the reeling and by the pole.

Bass love colorful lures and they seem to hit them more often. When fishing with these lures, one should always try to make them look good in the water and make the bass come after them. This can be done by making them swim as realistically as possible.

Bumping these lures against objects in the water attracts fish, but the chance of getting the lure stuck might be a risk you don't want to take.

A worm, on the other hand, is a good lure and represents the most edible and tasty meal. Even plastic worms will do.

Before competitions became a part of it, bass fishing was reserved for seasoned anglers and did get much media coverage. It was a recreation mostly practiced in the springtime and mostly early in the mornings and late in the afternoons all over the globe. Now, it has grown tremendously in every way, from the effort to gain knowledge to the technology to the equipment used to get the best results.