Shoal Bass
Shoal Bass (Micropterus cataractae) is a freshwater species. The first thing to check: dark blotchy vertical bars, or tiger stripes, on an olive-bronze flank, boldest on fish holding in fast shoal water. The look-alike to rule out is Smallmouth Bass: smallmouth share the bronze colour and vertical barring but are far more widespread; shoal bass are restricted to the Apalachicola basin and hold in shoal and bedrock habitat rather than gravel and boulder.
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| Scientific name | Micropterus cataractae |
|---|---|
| Also called | shoalie, Flint River smallmouth |
| Water | Freshwater |
| Group | Black bass |
| Temperature | Most active between 62 and 78 °F. |
How to identify a Shoal Bass
- Dark blotchy vertical bars, or tiger stripes, on an olive-bronze flank, boldest on fish holding in fast shoal water.
- Three dark bars radiating back from the eye, and usually a distinct dark spot at the base of the tail.
- The upper jaw stops level with the rear of the eye, and there is no tooth patch on the tongue.
If you would rather not work through a key on a wet deck, photograph the fish and let the app name it — you get the common and the scientific name back, and the record is filed before you release.
Fish it is mistaken for
| Species | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Smallmouth Bass | Smallmouth share the bronze colour and vertical barring but are far more widespread; shoal bass are restricted to the Apalachicola basin and hold in shoal and bedrock habitat rather than gravel and boulder. |
| Redeye Bass | Redeye have distinctly red eyes and white margins on the upper and lower edges of the tail, which a shoal bass lacks. |
Side-by-side comparisons
Read the full entry for Smallmouth Bass.
Where it lives
The Apalachicola–Chattahoochee–Flint river system of Georgia, Alabama and Florida, and almost nowhere else. Lives in rocky shoals and swift bedrock runs rather than still water.
Temperature
Most active between 62 and 78 °F.
The conditions that matter
Shoal bass are a current fish in the most literal sense — they hold in the seams and eddies of bedrock shoals and feed when water is moving, so river flow drives everything. They are also a species of conservation concern with a tiny native range, threatened by introduced Alabama bass, which makes accurate identification worth more than usual.
Global Fishing League records 18 weather and water readings against every catch automatically — tide stage, barometric pressure, water temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, swell, current, moon phase and more, taken at your GPS position at the moment you log the fish. Over a season that turns a hunch about shoal bass into a pattern you can read.
See every reading recorded with a catch, or the guides to what each reading means.
Size limits, bag limits and seasons
Size limits, bag limits, slot limits and seasons are set by your state wildlife agency — and for many offshore and migratory species by federal regulators — and on many waters they differ from the statewide rule. They also change between seasons. Check the current regulations for the exact water you are fishing before you keep a fish — we do not republish limits here, because a number that is a season out of date is worse than no number.
What the app does do is make your side of it accurate: every catch carries a length measured from the photograph, a GPS position and a timestamp, exportable if you ever need to show your work for a tournament or a record claim. It is also what a Global Fishing League entry is built from — a record that verifies itself, without publishing where you caught the fish.