My first quest for one of the redeye species would be the Bartram's Bass found in the Savannaha Drainage and also in the upper Saluda(probably stocked) drainage near Ware Shoals.
The best place for me to catch a Bartrams would be the Chatooga river, The Chauga River or The South Fork of the Broad River. I chose the Chauga River for my first attempt at them.
This video is from 4 years ago but is on my quest for the first of the seven Redeye Bass subspecies.
Now this fish(Bartrams) is found in North Carolina but where it is found in NC is Very very hard to reach in the Gorges State Park. The Closest and easiest place for me to get one would be on the Chauga River in South Carolina.
I gave my wife an ultralite rod and a green beetle spin to catch bream , Bartram's etc on and she showed me up with it catching the biggest one. I got most of mine of the F7 Rapala.
Here are some pictures of the Bartram's Bass my wife and I caught. I caught several Like this one.
And of course my Wife caught the biggest....uggh.
Here is My YouTube video of the Bartram's bass and then the range map.
This spring I made 2 trips for White Bass and I had 2 really good evenings on the water.
The first Video is fishing a Tributary to Falls Lake and the second is fishing the Haw River where it feeds into Jordan lake. Enjoy the videos and make sure you subscribe.
I will admit that I have somewhat of an Obsession with oddball fish. Roanoke Bass, Shoal bass etc. One of my goals or "bucket list" things I would like to accomplish is to catch the Bass Slam. Now there are several variations of this as Georgia has its own Bass Slam but mine would be to catch all the subspecies of Bass. Now, I know that I will probably never accomplish this because of time, money, family,work etc but it is something to strive for.
Here is what I have caught so far .
Northern largemouth- Easy for me they are all over here
Florida largemouth- Fairy easy, I go to Florida some and there are a few lakes north of me with them.
Smallmouthbass- Easy for me, I just have to go North or west 1 hr plus of where I live.
Alabama Spotted Bass- fairly easy for me as they are in a few rivers near me.
Kentucky Spotted Bass - Easy for me as they are in the Cape Fear drainage just south of me.
Shoal bass- Fairly hard as it is a 6 plus hour ride min for me to get to them
Bartrams bass- Moderate as I can get to them in just under 4 hours.
Now there are 7 variations/subspecies of the "Redeye bass" and I hope to get all of them as well.
Right now I have caught 2 of them, the Bartrams and the Redeye
There is a a least one Blog post here on all the above sub species. look on the side bar of my main page to see the subtitles.
The last subspecies that I have caught is the Coosa Bass found in the Coosa/Etowah Drainage in Alabama and Georgia, This is/was a 7hr ride for me. April the 11th 2022 I made it happen and here is the video and some pictures.
I caught 3 on this day but my goal was to catch 1 so I succeeded.
Here is the area I fished
My first Coosa Bass
My second one which had better colors.
Then My third Coosa Bass which by all accounts is a true Monster for the species.
You can see how fat she is
A cool little dam on Euharlee Creek
These Coosa Bass will hit anything a Largemouth/Smallmouth will hit but it is best to downsize for them as they are rarely over 12 inches. I spoke to well known Bioligist that has studied them and every one of the seven subspecies of Redeye they have found over 13-14 inches is a Hybid and not a pure fish. I had my best luck using the F7 Rapala Original Floating Minnow.
Be sure to watch my Youtube Adventure catching some Coosa Bass
My next quest is either the Chatahoochee Bass or the Suwannee Bass.
I hope everyone who read this learned something and please leave comments here and on Youtube and please dont forget to subscribe to this blog and my YT channel to get notifications.
***also is you have access to catch one of the odd ball species I would luv to join you on a trip one day.
A great read on Redeye Bass Fishing. Geared for the flyfisherman it is still a great read for the Spin fisherman.
I enjoy anything in the outdoors. Mainly canoeing and fishing but, also hunting, hiking, I love to plant trees and also search for big trees.
I grew up just outside Burlington, N.C. where my parents house sat on a bluff overlooking the Haw River. I can thank the Haw for getting me started in the outdoors. I Have 2 YouTube Channels as well. Mack's Extreme River Fishing and Mack's Public Land Hunting.
Thnaks, Mack
