Guadalupe Bass are not a large fish with the record three pounds, 11 ounces that was caught in Lake Travis in 1983.

Features

The Guadalupe Bass is similar in appearance to the Spotted Bass (see below). It is moderately compressed, having an elongate body and a large mouth. The body depth is usually three to five times in standard length. It has ten to 12 dark bars along its sides, which are less distinct in older fish. It usually has 16 pectoral rays between 26 and 27 scales around the caudal peduncle.

The shortest dorsal fin spine contained 1.1 to 2.5 times in longest dorsal spine. It has 22-28 scales around caudle peduncle; seven to ten scales above lateral line; 14-19 scales below lateral line and more than 55 lateral line scales. It has three anal spines; 6-13 dorsal fin spines and six or seven brachiostegals.

It has 10-12 dark bars on side and they are more pronounced and dark when they are young, but fade as they get older. Small spots are visible on the scales and extend to near dorsal; a dark lateral stripe is obscured by barring; the caudal spot is indistinct and even more so in the adult Guadalupe Bass and the maximum depth of bars on body contained one and one-half to two times in maximum body depth.

Growth

In it’s river habitat, the Guadalupe Bass grows at a slow pace reaching no more than a maximum of 111 mm/4.3 inches and as little as 58 mm/2.2 inches. By the following year they reach a size of about 150 mm/5.9 inches on the low side or 200 mm/8.8 inches on the large size. After year three, the growth rate increase at about 30 mm a year/1.2 inches to a maximum of 38.1 cm/15 inches.

Well, that’s enough of the boring science stuff. To boil it all down, the Guadalupe bass is almost a dead ringer for the Spotted Bass. All the Guadalupe Bass look pretty much the same with the exception of those found in the Perdernales river in Texas.

Size

The Guadalupe Bass is not a large fish with the record three pounds, 11 ounces that was caught in Lake Travis in 1983. It measured 15 inches long. Not as large as the Peacocks of South America or the Niugini Bass from Papua New Guinea, the Guadalupe Bass is found in small rivers, stream and lakes that do not have the resources to support a larger fish.

Some anglers have reported Guadalupe Bass as large as five pounds. However, after looking at the pictures submitted, these were actually offspring of the mating between the Smallmouth Bass and the Guadalupe Bass.