A picture of the top two pharyngeal teeth of a largemouth bass.

Bass don’t always strike things to eat. They may strike out of curiosity, they may be defending their territory, or they may just be a mean fish.

But when they do actually decide to eat their prey, how do they do that? How do bass crush their prey and get what they fit into their large mouths into their stomachs?

When bass ambush prey they open their mouths wide, flair their gills, and create a vacuum-suction of water that draws in its prey. Once inside the mouth the bass has well developed pharyngeal teeth in the back of the throat that can crush the exoskeletons of prey.

These teeth are often referred to as the bass’s “crushers”.