We expect to ship these the first week of September!
Thanks to our friend Duane Hada, AFF’s T-shirt this year features the Neosho Bass, a unique species of fish only found in the Ozarks that needs more awareness. You have to know about something to care about it—and you have to care about it to be an advocate for it. We hope that this shirt will serve as a way to spread this story and, along the way, help the Neosho thrive.
Arkansas isn’t just home to any bass — it’s a privileged steward of the native Neosho Bass (Micropterus velox). The Neosho was only recently recognized as distinct from the smallmouth bass. We have been catching these hard fighting ‘river torpedos’ without understanding just how special they are—and how different.
The Neosho is only found in the upper White River system and parts of the Arkansas River drainage in the Ozark region of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas. Because they only occur in this small area, keeping a healthy Neosho population gives us the opportunity to be one of the few stewards of this unique fish.
This fish reflects the best of our heritage—strong and spirited. It thrives in the Ozarks’ clear, rocky, streams. Their presence is an indicator of clean, cool, well-oxygenated streams with stable flows and good habitat. Protecting them helps protect broader stream ecosystems.
They do need protection. Arkansas smallmouth rivers face a lot of environmental pressure and this is a population that needs good habitat and protections from over harvesting. There are still genetically pure Neosho but hybridization is occurring rapidly in some rivers. The Neosho have a short lifespan—it is rare for them to live over 6 years —-and their average maximum length is just 13 inches! A 2 pound Neosho would be world class!
To protect them, we need to have conversations that emphasize the importance of conservation, education, and potential management strategies to protect this species.
We hope that you’ll wear this shirt, take an interest in, and contribute to the Neosho Bass conversation. It’s pretty amazing we have our own species of bass!