Best Bass Lakes

Top 10 Best Bass Lakes of 2025

New hot spots and legendary lakes join forces to create the 2025 rankings. Start planning now and hit the road soon ... these fisheries are on fire!

Posted on
Written by
Andrew Canulette
Written by
Christopher Decker
Written by
Mark Hicks
Written by
Brian Sak
If you’re looking for your next dream destination to chase easy bites and personal bests, look no further. Bassmaster’s 100 Best Bass Lakes rankings return for 2025, and this year’s list is packed with surprises. From legendary fisheries reclaiming their glory to emerging hot spots making a splash for the first time, this is the most comprehensive, data-driven breakdown of America’s top bass lakes you will find.
 
To build this ultimate bucket list of bass fishing destinations, we went far beyond the dock. Our team scoured tournament results from every major circuit over the past 12 months, analyzing weights, catch rates and consistency. We consulted with state fisheries biologists and natural resource agencies, gathering insights on stocking programs, habitat health and long-term trends. And we polled thousands of passionate anglers to get boots-on-the-ground perspective from those who know these waters best.
 
Some lakes that dominated in past years didn’t make the cut in 2025, a reflection of how dynamic and unpredicatable fisheries can be. Meanwhile, others exploded on the scene, earning their spot with shocking weights. Whether you want to chase smallmouth in the North, giant largemouth in the South or tank spotted bass in between, these rankings have you covered.
 
Top 100 Lakes 2025: Top 10 | Central | Northeastern | Southeastern | Western
1. Clear Lake, California
[43,785 acres]
California’s largest natural lake is world-renowned as one of the all-time best big-bass lakes. Consequently, its pea green waters get hammered by anglers throughout the year. As an example, Clear Lake accounted for just over 7.5% of the 261 Western tournaments that we surveyed in our search of the region’s top waters. Despite the pounding that these fish take, this place continues to pump out an incredible number of monster largemouth. California Department of Fish and Wildlife senior environmental scientist supervisor Flower Moye claims that this is the best bass fishery in the state. And the numbers support her statement. A new WON Bass Open three-day tournament record was set here in April when John Pearl landed and weighed 15 bass for 102.81 pounds. Big fish, caught on Day 1 by the fourth-place team, tipped the scales at 12.93 pounds. There were also 35 largemouth weighing greater than 8 pounds brought in. During all surveyed tournaments combined, there were more than 100 bass caught over 7 pounds. Note that there are golden mussel prevention restrictions in effect at Clear Lake that require Lake County and California mussel fee stickers on all trailered boats. 
2. O.H. Ivie Lake, Texas
[20,000 acres]
Go back in time about five years and ask just about any bass angler not from Texas their thoughts on O.H. Ivie. It’s fair to say you’d get some blank stares and shrugged shoulders. Now, everyone knows all about this absolute beast of a bass lake located about three hours from both the Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio-Austin metroplexes. Ivie has produced 30 Toyota ShareLunker bass through the first four months of 2025. Amazingly, that number is lower than the 35 ShareLunkers caught in Ivie during the same time frame last year, but there’s been no significant falloff here. Of the 30 ShareLunkers (8 pounds or greater), a total of seven of those fish weighed more than 13 pounds, putting them in the prestigious Lew’s Legend Class. The biggest of the bunch (as of early May) was a 16.39-pound hog hooked by Cullie Belveal on April 2. The Lindsay, Okla., resident’s giant bass measured 27.75 inches long, too. A few days earlier, Mechelda Criswell of Hobbs, N.M., caught a 14.56-pound beast that measured 26.75 inches. Those two fish alone are enough to make an angler’s eyes bulge, but catches like those have become practically commonplace for Ivie. That’s why, after all, it was voted the best bass lake in the U.S. in 2023 and second in both 2022 and 2024. 
 
3. Lake Fork, Texas 
[27,690 acres]
How is it that this lake continues to impress so greatly given the natural wax and wane of fisheries and the significant number of boats that crisscross Lake Fork pretty much daily in search of big bass? Call it fate. Call it nature smiling on this water. Call it great management by Texas Parks and Wildlife. But whatever you do, call on Lake Fork early and often. The powerhouse fishery east of Dallas produced 36 Toyota ShareLunker bass (fish weighing 8 pounds or more) between Jan. 1 and April 30. That’s more than any other fishery in Texas, which is saying a lot in a state known for liking everything large. The biggest of the catches was a 12.56-pound, 26-inch-long toad boated by Sterling Pfeifer of Commerce City, Colo., on March 27. At the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite at Lake Fork held May 8-11, each angler in the final-day cut caught more than 100 pounds over four days — the second year in a row the Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series has seen the entire Top 10 earn Century Club status. 
4. St. Lawrence River  
(Thousand Islands), New York [50-mile stretch, plus eastern Lake Ontario]
These waters continue to reign as the nation’s unrivaled trophy smallmouth fishery. An August Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series tournament here in 2024 once again produced Century Club belts for anglers who tallied more than 100 pounds of brown bass. Cory Johnston won with 102 pounds even. Robert Gee finished second with 100-7. More than half of the 101 anglers who competed on each day of the four-day event bagged a limit that exceeded 20 pounds. 
5. Lake Casitas, California 
[1,100 acres]
Western anglers have long known that lakes with substantial trout stocking programs produce better-quality largemouth in comparison to waters without. Add that to southern California’s ideal weather and longer growing season, and you’ll find some of the region’s biggest bass. Getting those monster bass to bite, however, can be difficult. As a result, Casitas has been hit-or-miss in terms of making our 100 Best Bass Lakes list, with this being only its third appearance over the past 10 years. It took fish averaging just over 6 pounds to win here during the first four months of the year, with the largest individual bass at 80% of the tournaments greater than 8 pounds. The biggest of the bunch was a 12.24-pound heavyweight caught by the fourth-place team at an American Bass Anglers team event in January. The largest five-fish limit, caught during a March tournament held by the same organization, tipped the scales at 38.96 pounds; the winner’s big fish went 9.96. 
6. Orange Lake, Florida 
[12,550 acres]
For the second consecutive year, Orange Lake reigns supreme over the Southeastern region. There just aren’t many places where this many giant largemouth are being caught with regularity. In the month of April, six bass over 10 pounds were registered with the Florida TrophyCatch program from Orange Lake alone. For the year, over 100 TrophyCatch submissions have been made (bass over 8 pounds), and five of those bass were over 13 pounds. The tournament catches are off the chain, too. In mid-February, it took 30 pounds to win an Xtreme Bass Series tournament, and seven bass over 10 pounds were brought to the scales. Then in late March, it took 32 pounds to win in the same series, and a 12.70 was the big bass. If you need more evidence, an April Xtreme Bass Series event took 35.37 pounds to win, and the big fish was a 13-pounder. The top three teams in that event all had 30 pounds or better. That was followed by a Florida B.A.S.S. Nation event that took 25 pounds to win and a 9.84 largemouth to win big bass. 
7. Santee Cooper Lakes, South Carolina 
[110,000 acres and 60,000 acres, respectively]
The top-end weights produced by Lakes Marion and Moultrie have been nothing short of outstanding in 2025. It took 35 pounds, 3 ounces to win a BFL event in late February, and in that event, longtime South Carolina B.A.S.S. Nation competitor Gary Pope landed a 13-6 largemouth. A few weeks later, five 30-pound bags crossed the stage in a three-day National Professional Fishing League event, while 22 bags of 25 pounds hit the scales. CATT results have been equally impressive. The winners of a Feb. 8 event weighed in a limit of 37.5 pounds, including a 9.87 big bass. The fun continued into March. A Carolina Bass Challenge tournament took 28.71 pounds to win; 33 bags over 20 pounds were scored, and a 9.58 lunker won big-bass honors. 
8. Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota 
[132,500 acres]
The name means “thousand lakes” in French. It might as well mean “thousand bass,” seeing that most anyone — regardless of age or expertise — seems to hammer the smallies on this sprawling spread in central Minnesota. The City Auto Glass Bass Classic is one of the biggest tournaments held at Mille Lacs annually — in very late summer, to be exact. That’s prime time for smallmouth action in these parts, and the weights in the 2024 event prove it, with five smallmouth sacks weighing 27.22, 26.43, 26.2 and 25.43 pounds. Perhaps even more impressive, every single bag in the Top 10 had at least one smallmouth bass that weighed more than 5 pounds. It’s not just the adults having fun up here, either. Thirty-one teams entered a recent youth tournament, and the winning limit weighed 19.52, with the heavy of the day a 5.48-pound, 21.25-inch smallie. The only thing small about Mille Lacs is the window of good weather to fish a lake this far north. Still, if you time things just right, this place often resembles the best bass fishing lake in the U.S. (a title it held in 2017). 
9. Lake Erie, New York 
[30-mile radius from Buffalo]
If you wish to avoid aching wrists from battling quality smallmouth bass, stay away from Lake Erie’s eastern basin. Lake Erie Research Unit aquatic biologist Pascal Wilkins surveyed 120 bass boats from April through mid-May 2025. “There were typically two anglers per boat,” Wilkins said. “One in eight boats had caught over 50 bass in a day’s fishing. The first tournament of the year produced a smallmouth weighing over 7 pounds.” What’s more, if the wind is howling and Erie is too mean to fish, the upper Niagara River not only offers protection, but an equal number of smallmouth to chase. Or, an angler could stay inside the breakwalls and target the impressive largemouth population that tucks inside the boat harbors. 
10. Lake St. Clair, Michigan 
[430 square miles]
Despite averaging a depth of only 11 feet and bordering massive metropolitan Detroit, this inland sea yields incredible smallmouth fishing year after year. A three-day St. Croix Bassmaster Opens presented by SEVIIN tournament in July 2024 produced the lake’s typical spectacular catches. Jay Przekurat won with 75 pounds, 5 ounces, and all the Top 10 anglers weighed in over 66 pounds. During the first two days of the event, the 221-angler field sacked 131 limits over 20 pounds. The biggest bass weighed 6-2. 

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