European Bass are also found in Lake Baikal?

The European Bass can be found in coastal waters from North Africa up the coast to Europe, including the Mediterranean, and all the way up to Norway. While this may seem like a vast distribution, it is rather limited considering the thousands of miles of coastline around the world.

And, depending on the time of year, it can also be found in the streams and rivers all along the coast. However, the European Bass is not a fish that naturally lives in land-locked lakes, nor have we been able to find evidence of any lakes where the sea bass can be found. However, should anyone be able to provide evidence to the contrary, we will post it here.

Lake Baikal

A few anglers have written us informing us that European Bass are also found in Lake Baikal with a rather healthy population of the fish. However, after some research, we have found this to be false.

First, let’s understand a little about the geography of Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is located in the middle of Russia. It is the largest fresh water lake in the world in terms of water depth and water volume. At it’s deepest point, the lake is over one mile deep and the lake waters are well mixed, supporting a large amount of life with over 1700 species.

However, the only out flowing river, the Angara, flows north into the Yenisei River, which in turn flows into the Arctic Ocean. As we mentioned before, the distribution of the European Sea Bass only goes as far north as Norway, too far west of the Yenisei.

Second, while Lake Baikal does contain bass, these are of the Serranide family whereas the European Bass are members of the Moronidae family.

Lake Fishing Techniques

Since there is no evidence of the existence of the European Bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) living, or being introduced to lake waters, there are no present techniques that we can present to you. The European Bass simply does not exist in Lake Baikal.

Moreover, while we could extrapolate techniques based on other bass species, the bass species in this lake are of a different family altogether and the techniques would not apply.