Indiana Lake Depths

Game fish · sunfish family

Smallmouth bass

Micropterus dolomieu · also called bronzeback, smallie

Native to IndianaRecorded in 22 Indiana lakes
Illustration of a smallmouth bass in side view
AI-generated illustration, not a photograph and not to scale.
Typical size
12–15 in and 1–2 lb
Spawns
May and early June, at 55–65°F
Nests
On gravel or hard bottom, 2–20 ft deep
Favors
Rocky, gravel-bottomed streams with current
Indiana record
8 lb 3.6 oz — Monroe Lake, Monroe County, 2024

Where smallmouth bass have been recorded

22 of the 186 Indiana lakes on this site with fish records list smallmouth bass, across 11 counties. Tap a dot to open that lake’s depth map.

Lake Wawasee, Kosciusko CountyLake Maxinkuckee, Marshall CountyLake Freeman, Carroll CountyBass Lake, Starke CountyHamilton Lake, Steuben CountyCrooked Lake, Steuben CountyCedar Lake, Lake CountyPine Lake, LaPorte CountyOliver Lake, LaGrange CountyKoontz Lake, Starke CountyLake Gage, Steuben CountyAdams Lake, LaGrange CountyHurshtown Reservoir, Allen CountyWabee Lake, Kosciusko CountyPretty Lake, LaGrange CountyWall Lake, LaGrange CountyCedar Lake, LaGrange CountyIndiana Lake, Elkhart CountyOlin Lake, LaGrange CountyMyers Lake, Marshall CountyWestler Lake, LaGrange CountyCypress Lake, Jackson County

Recorded here Other lakes with fish records

How we know

  • 22lakes where a DNR fisheries survey caught them

A lake can appear in more than one line. A lake that isn’t listed may still have them: records exist only where someone caught, netted or stocked them.

Inland lakes on this list run from 38 to 3,508 acres (median 317) and from 8 to 91 ft deep (median 56 ft).

How many turn up in DNR surveys

Indiana DNR crews survey lakes the same way everywhere: timed night electrofishing along the shore, plus gill and trap nets set overnight. The standard method makes lakes comparable. These are the DNR’s own sampling rates from its community surveys, 2008–2025 — a measure of how many fish a lake holds, not how many an angler will catch.

Found in
20 of 175 lakes surveyed this way
Typical rate
4.0 per hour where found
Highest
224 per hour
Method
fish per hour of night electrofishing

“Typical” is the median across the lakes where the survey caught at least one. Nets and electrofishing catch different fish: by the other method it turned up in 10 lakes at a typical 0.50 per net lift. A single survey is a snapshot of one season.

Highest survey rates on this site

  1. Hurshtown Reservoir, Allen 2018 224
  2. Indiana Lake, Elkhart 2014 32
  3. Lake Freeman, Carroll 2021 32
  4. Lake Gage, Steuben 2015–2016 32
  5. Lake Maxinkuckee, Marshall 2020 15
  6. Westler Lake, LaGrange 2022 14
  7. Crooked Lake, Steuben 2016 6.0
  8. Oliver Lake, LaGrange 2019 6.0
  9. Wabee Lake, Kosciusko 2010 6.0
  10. Pretty Lake, LaGrange 2018 4.0

Fish per hour of night electrofishing, with survey years. Survey effort and season differ between lakes.

Often found with

Share of these lakes that also list each fish.

How to recognize it

Dark vertical bars on a brown or bronze body, and a jaw that reaches the eye but not past its rear edge. Young smallmouth have orange in the center of the tail.

Don’t confuse it with

Largemouth bass — The jaw reaches past the rear of the eye, and a dark stripe runs along the side.

Up close

Illustration of a smallmouth bass's head and front half from the side, mouth closed, with the upper jaw ending below the eye, a shallow notch joining the two parts of the dorsal fin, and dark vertical bars on bronze-brown sides.
Smallmouth bass: the upper jaw ends below the eye, not past it; the dorsal fin is joined by a shallow notch; dark vertical bars on bronze-brown sides.
Illustration of a largemouth bass's head and front half from the side, mouth closed, with the upper jaw reaching past the back of the eye, a deep notch between the two parts of the dorsal fin, and a dark band along the side.
Largemouth bass: the upper jaw reaches past the back of the eye; the dorsal fin is almost split in two; a dark band runs along the side.

AI-generated close-ups, not photographs, drawn from the cited descriptions. They show what to look for; they are not a substitute for an expert identification (provenance).

Life in an Indiana lake

Smallmouth are fish of gravel- and rock-bottomed streams with current; in lakes they favor steep drop-offs and rocky shores.

The male builds a nest on gravel or hard bottom and guards the eggs and fry for a short time; the young feed on zooplankton and midge larvae.

Source: the sources below.

Rules and eating

Check the rules before you keep fish. Each lake page shows the regulations that apply there, and the Indiana Fishing Guide is the official source. Before eating fish from a particular lake, check the Indiana Fish Consumption Advisory.

All 22 lakes with smallmouth bass

Show every lake, by county

Allen County 1

Hurshtown Reservoir

Carroll County 1

Lake Freeman

Elkhart County 1

Indiana Lake

Jackson County 1

Cypress Lake

Kosciusko County 2

Lake Wawasee, Wabee Lake

LaGrange County 7

Adams Lake, Cedar Lake, Olin Lake, Oliver Lake, Pretty Lake, Wall Lake, Westler Lake

LaPorte County 1

Pine Lake

Lake County 1

Cedar Lake

Marshall County 2

Lake Maxinkuckee, Myers Lake

Starke County 2

Bass Lake, Koontz Lake

Steuben County 3

Crooked Lake, Hamilton Lake, Lake Gage

Sources

← All fish of Indiana