Some interesting examples include: “a little pregnant,” “all-natural artificial flavor,” “dark light,” “virtual reality,” “black blue jeans,” and “black bass.”

That’s right—black bass is an oxymoron. They aren’t black, and they sure aren’t bass, but sunfish. Don’t feel bad for them because they are misnamed, though, because they’re not alone. Their cousins, sand bass and smallmouth bass, are also misidentified.

Black bass are the largest member of the sunfish family, but as my old daddy would have said, “They don’t look like no sunfish I ever caught.” It makes sense, though. Ounce for ounce, sunfish are among the hardest fighters I’ve ever tangled with. The Old Man said, “If a bream grew to the size of a five or six pound bass, I’d have to use a winch to land them.”

Since the turn of the 20th century, when it became illegal for commercial fishermen to use nets, these muscular fighters became a much sought-after game fish because they grow to such a grand size, and give anglers what they want—a solid tussle.

The fish in question is commonly called largemouth bass, green bass, slough bass, lake bass, bigmouth, bucketmouth, or any number of other identifying monikers, including green trout. (?) They are without question the most popular sport fish in this country.

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