Bass Avoid Biting Off More Than They Can Chew

This image shows a very rare event: a Largemouth Bass has attempted to eat a meal it can't swallow.  Until 1991, scientists had great difficulty quantifying how Bass decide what sized fish to eat.  Correlations between the body size of the bass and the body size of its prey were weak.  It turns out that bass carefully select prey that are smaller (from top to bottom) then the with of the bass' mouth.  This rather obvious (in hindsight) conclusion was made by  observing bass feed on small fish under controlled laboratory conditions.  The researchers found that Bass never ingested fish that were taller than their gaping mouths were wide.