I know many here on BR fish for other species as well as bass. If there were no bass to fish for, what species would you target?

Crappie and walleye in my area lakes

No which bass? All of them? Rock bass White bass yellow bass striped bass hybrid bass black bass ? 

If I didn't bass fish at all I would spend more time targeting crappies, walleyes, and muskies.

 

Kind of a loaded answer for this guy considering I do spend a fair amount of time targeting those other species listed above already, plus I bass fish too.

 

If I lived near the coast I would definitely do more saltwater fishing.

Pike and Walleye, which I target occasionally anyways.

If there were no brown bass here ~

First, I'd sob pretty heavily for a while.

Then, I'd need to trade in my rig for something more suitable to target,

 Big Water Lake Trout & Salmonids.

A-Jay

 

Catfish and wipers

Definitely Crappie, an absolute blast on light tackle. 

I'd go after catfish.  I fished for them years before I started bass fishing.

Sauger, rock fish, crappie, bluegill, trout, catfish, stripe, hybrid, walleye.

When the water is froze over I go trout fishing.

Mostly pickerel, crappie, and cats. But as long as the ice clears, I'll get a bass most outings too.

Walleyes, bluegill and crappie. 

The esox family; pike, muskie, and pickerel. I came here to learn about bass fishing techniques once I learned there were very few pike and muskie tournaments. 

Redfish/trout

Hybrids

Here in Arizona we are fortunate to catch bass all year long. Regional waters are stocked with trout during the cooler months. Sunfish and catfish still play too. Only seasonal adjustment is working things at a slower pace. More sitting still or dragging the baits a few inches at a time seems to work better when the water is cold. Cheers!

Trout fishing in creeks and land base shark fishing.

Crappie and big bluegill on UL tackle. 

Suckers cause there’s one born every minute!

Eyes, crappie, musky, pike, catfish, white bass

2 hours ago, KSanford33 said:

I came here to learn about bass fishing techniques once I learned there were very few pike and muskie tournaments. 

I've never heard of a pike tournament, but there's plenty of muskie tournaments out here.  There's one up on the Chippewa Flowage - The Treelands Tournement in October - that was won so many times by a fly angler they changed the rules because the gear guys cried and whined.

 

This is an easy question for me to answer because bass are my fallback species after the water gets to warm for musky and pike.

9 minutes ago, Further North said:

I've never heard of a pike tournament, but there's plenty of muskie tournaments out here.  There's one up on the Chippewa Flowage - The Treelands Tournement in October - that was won so many times by a fly angler they changed the rules because the gear guys cried and whined.

Here in Ontario, there’s tons of pike tournaments, and even a few full season circuits ( mainly in the spring though when the water temps are cooler). Most of them

are by total length of five fish instead of weight, as it’s easier to measure them that way. Our bass season doesn’t start till June in most places here, so a lot of guys fish pike tournaments until then. I used to fish several back when I fished tournaments, did quite well and won some pretty decent money too. 
 

As for different species, I’ll fish for just about anything throughout the year, but if I had to choose one, it’d probably be pike. There’s lots of them around here, they’re aggressive and put up a good fight on the right tackle, and most of the ways we target them are very similar to bass fishing. Oh yeah, we get some good sized ones around here too, not just the little “hammer handles” that many places only get. 

Don't know that I'd put the money into a boat at this point in life, but If I could talk myself into it I'd grab a Boston Whaler and go for stripers off shore and in the CT river. 

I live in upstate NY, and unfortunately esox tournaments are few and far between. But there’s a bunch of bass tournaments in NY, so that works. 

1 hour ago, Further North said:

I've never heard of a pike tournament, but there's plenty of muskie tournaments out here.

Is there still the PMT, Professional Muskie Tour? I saw an episode of Keyes Outdoors last year and I thought he was in an event. It could have been a different series too.

 

No pike tournaments here either. But I have seen a weekly pike club before on various lakes around here. I was bass fishing one evening and when I finished around dark, there was about a dozen boats in the parking lot doing their award ceremony. They were all having a good time together drinking beer so I went over there and talked to one of them for a few minutes. The format was similar to @Way north bass guy described, a length and immediate release format. I’m not one to specifically target a pike but these guys genuinely seemed to be enjoying it.