Georgia waters produced the world- record largemouth bass. No other state can make that claim. But beyond the world record, Georgia is the most diverse state for bass fishing. From shallow swamps and oxbows in the south containing huge largemouths, to lakes in the mountains that have populations of smallmouths, we have it all. You can fish ponds, lakes, streams, rivers and even brackish tidal waters for bass.

In the Peach State, you can fish for largemouth, smallmouth, Suwannee, redeye, shoal, and spotted bass -- six of the seven recognized kinds of black bass. No other state has that many different species of black bass. But there is even a new bass here, found on the Broad River at Clarks Hill Lake and tentatively called the Bartrams bass. That fish may soon be recognized as yet another new black bass species.

Bass fishing in Georgia is amazingly consistent over the years. After each tournament, each Georgia Bass Chapter Federation club in the state sends in a Creel Census Report to Dr. Carl Quertermus at the State University of West Georgia, and he keeps records on a variety of information. These records go back 27 years and show that the catch rate during tournaments has changed very little over all that time.

That's not to say that fisheries managers in the state are resting on their laurels. Over the past few years, more efforts have been made to tailor creel and size limits to specific bodies of water. Some have worked well, like the 14-inch minimum size limit on all bass at Lake Lanier. In that reservoir, the population of spotted bass has responded by growing fast and fat on the blueback herring in the impoundment.

At Lake Oconee, a slot limit has not really paid off because anglers don't follow it. On that lake, anglers are encouraged to keep bass from 6 to 11 inches long, to reduce the numbers of small fish. Very few keep those small bass, so a regulation that would help the lake isn't effective because it is ignored.

At Rocky Mount Public Fishing Area, a slot limit on Heath Lake requiring fishermen to release all bass from 14 to 21 inches long, combined with keeping the lake closed except the first ten days of each month, has created a trophy-bass lake. Heath is probably one of your best bets for catching a lunker on any PFA.

Over the years, bass anglers have become savvier about their resources. For a long time, fishermen would put out brush piles to concentrate fish and make them easier to catch. Recently, bass fishermen -- especially club members -- have worked with the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division fisheries biologists to improve habitat on lakes. These long-term efforts don't pay immediate results in bigger catches, but help the bass population.

Rather than concentrating on brushpiles, efforts are being made on many of our bigger lakes to improve shoreline cover for bass fry, thus increasing the numbers that survive. Deeper cover is also added, but put out to give the bass more ambush points and places to hide, rather than just attracting them to a hook.

Some of the "management" also involves taking no action! Most bass fishermen think stocking bass in big lakes would help, but it generally makes no difference. One pair of bass can spawn more little bass each year than would be stocked in any given area, so stocking usually just wastes time and money.