How many times do you catch a different species when you are targeting bass? 

 

Not too often here, I hook the occasional eastern chain pickeral, (small northern pike relative), I may get a hook in a gar about once a year, a mudfish (bowfin), once every blue moon, and a large speckeled perch (crappie) on a lipless crank a couple times.

 

I know my northern angling brothers have to deal with the toothy lure thiefs on a more regular basis.

 

So what is your story on this?

I catch a lot of northern pike when I am targeting largies here. It’s annoying most of the time because they’re slimy and aggressive and they wreck lures. 90% of them are in the small category too. On rare occasion I’ll catch a sizable one over 30 inches. Biggest one I caught in 2021 was 35 inches.

 

I also catch walleye and muskies. They are both much rarer than pike though because they simply aren’t as aggressive. Some people catch various species of panfish and catfish when they’re bass fishing. I don’t.

Not to often here either. 

Catch an occasional pickerel on Jerkbait and occasional Crappie on spinnerbaits, that's about it.

 

Fairly regular. Last year I caught pike, crappies, white bass, drum, bluegills, buffalo and even a catfish or 2.

All the usual suspects listed above.  I caught a trout on a chatterbait.  I'm not talking about snagging it, I'm saying he bent my rod in half and had a 5/0 hook between his eyes. 

 

Also thought I had a PB largemouth and it turned out to be a carp that ate my Pit Boss.

 

Drum drum drum and some more drum. Also a good many walleye. The other day I think I caught 9 species of fish in a short evening trip. black crappie, drum, largemouth, spot, smallmouth, white bass, sauger, channel catfish, and skipjack herring (or something like that)

 

could have easily caught more species by chance, like white crappie, bluegill, redbreast sunfish, walleye, etc. 

 

East TN is extremely diverse with different species of everything, not just fish 

Caught a trout on a rebel wee craw when I was gunning for smallies in a creek.

 

Caught a few crappie and bream on Texas rigged trick worms when I was going for large mouth.

I have many days where I'll catch a handful (or more) of tilapia in between the bass. Especially one pond where the tilapia are very aggressive strikers on crankbaits and chatterbaits. The occasional crappie and sunfish, as well.

For me it's mostly rock bass anytime anywhere, pickerel and drum.

Usually walleye if I catch something other than bass!  One of these days they will be sorry, when I want to put a sammich in the livewell!

Depends on what lure that I'm using. If I don't catch lmb, it's either a striper or crappie. 

By catch up this way has included Walleye, Northern Pike & Fat Brown Trout.

But, I do love telling this story . . . .

While fishing a deep point with a jerkbait for smallies, I hooked what I thought was a U-Boat.

Hoping the 10lb InvisX would hold her, it was all I could do to keep from pooping my pants.

Net job was quite an adventure but in the end, I got to hold & measure this Beautiful Full Framed Beast. 48 inches of stunning Michigan Musky.

I was so pumped !!!

 

 

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/215910-new-pb-musky-~-video-added/

 

A-Jay

Mostly pickerel, but depending on the time of year, also pike, crappie, snakeheads, rock bass, warmouths, green sunfish, striped bass, yellow and white perch, and more and more blue cats. I don't consider myself a bass angler, so I don't really mind the bycatch.

Pike, musky, cats, drum, walleye. Caught 2 of my biggest walleye while bass fishing. One flipping docks with a jig n pig and my PB 27-1/2" on a jerk bait on 3fow.

I catch warmouth occasionally. Other that, Ive caught a few bream , a couple catfish, a pickeral and a few mudfish. And  a lot of turtles while live bait fishing.

North Florida fresh water doesnt have much diversity compared to many places. But we make up for it with huge numbers of Bass , bream, specks, and catfish…, 

Usually just white bass, especially if I'm fishing in more than 8 feet of water.  I probably catch 1 white bass for every 7 black bass.

 

However, there's one lake that I often catch decent sized channel cats when targeting bass.  I've caught them on everything, including top waters and most recently, a rather large glide bait.  All of the lakes I fish have channel cats, but this is the only one I catch them on, and I catch one about every other trip.

This kitty was another one 

I catch more pickerel than I would like.  It's what I mostly catch until the water warms up unfortunately, so I usually target trout early in the season with small spinners and jerkbaits - and I still catch some pickerel (depending where I'm fishing).  But I must admit the larger pickerel can put up a good fight.  Most people around here also catch a decent amount of bluegill, perch, and crappie as well.  

And a crappie on a jerk bait 

42 minutes ago, N Florida Mike said:

I catch warmouth occasionally. Other that, Ive caught a few bream , a couple catfish, a pickeral and a few mudfish. And  a lot of turtles while live bait fishing.

North Florida fresh water doesnt have much diversity compared to many places. But we make up for it with huge numbers of Bass , bream, specks, and catfish…, 

You got pickerel and mud fish too 

Same here as most guys, especially in and around any Great Lake. Fishing on Georgian Bay, you never know what your gonna catch. I’ve caught muskie, pike, several species of trout, different panfish, walleye and a few other assorted critters. 

6 minutes ago, Way north bass guy said:

I’ve caught muskie

The color looks more like a tiger muskie than a pure strain.

10 minutes ago, gimruis said:

The color looks more like a tiger muskie than a pure strain.

Yeah that one was a tiger. One lake I fish has quite a few of them. 

Targeting Bass with Ned rigs, whopper Ploppers or Rapala floating minnows have always resulted in catching off target species for me.

Sunfish

Yellow Perch

Rock Bass

Channel Catfish

Northern Pike

Chain Pickerel

PB Musky 37 lbs in 1/4 oz hair fishing smallmouth.

Pike, walleye, Rainbow trout, Steelhead, Stripe bass, Blue cat, Channel Cat, Red Ear, Crappie, Carp.

Tom