Thread: Mojorig

Turtlebait,

I will have to get that info for you from the WOs. I know how I would answer those questions but I am not the one with the ticket book. It may take me a couple of days, sorry.

Ok thank you.

I already did a search,your right but it doesn't really mean anything when telling them apart.It seems if a smallmouth male and a ky female will produce something different from a male ky and female sm.It seems one will have a tooth patch and the other want.Have to send it to the lab for A gene check I guess lol.

Sorry for the delay in answering these questions.

First, I want to say that I didn’t realize that you were talking about catching meanmouths in river. Those are not as common as you see in reservoirs. For example: In the 11 point River during the fall of 2011 and 2012, sampled sport fish over 40 miles of river each year. We sampled over 1000 smallmouth bass and 400 spotted bass (Yes we seen a bunch of crappie too). I don’t recall seeing any meanmouths. That doesn’t mean they aren’t out there just means they are rare. In streams, they use different spawning habitats. In reservoirs during high water events they tend to use the same type of spawning habitats, making it easier to hybridize.

Now to your questions, I have discussed this with our Fisheries Administration in LR and Enforcement Captions in the areas you mentioned. Here is their answer: An angler should go with the most restrictive regulation. For example, if an angler catches a suspected mean mouth (spotted bass x smallmouth bass cross) and there is a 15” minimum length limit on smallmouth bass and no length limit on spotted bass in lake or river X, the fish should be at least 15” if the angler intends to harvest the fish. This would hold true for creel limits as well. Also, if an angler has concerns about whether a fish is legal for harvest or not, they can simply throw the fish back.

As for the record smallmouth and testing for genetics, we will have to wait till that time comes. Some states are doing the genetic testing on smallmouth and spotted bass records and some are not. As for Largemouth record, I don’t see that happening. Those are extremely rare and will not reach the size of a really big Florida largemouth bass.

For telling the difference between a meanmouth, spotted, and smallmouth bass, I am comfortable doing it most of the time. The only reason I am is I did my master work on spotted bass in the white river chain of lakes. I have seen thousands of spotted bass. However, there is not tried and true method of determine a meanmouth. They are not always as easy to ID as they look in pictures. Most of the time they look like you cut a smallmouth and spotted bass in half and glued the top of the smallmouth to the bottom of a spotted bass. Eventhough I say I am comfortable doing that doesn’t mean I don’t see some from time to time that I have a hard time identifying.

Finally, everyone don’t use teeth on the tongue to ID spotted bass that could result in a incorrect identification. I have seen largemouth bass with teeth on their tongue. When in doubt always use the mouth. The spotted bass mouth ends at the edge of their eye. A largemouth’s mouth ends way past the eye.

I hope this information helps!

Yes every good answer,thank you.
Yes the glueing as you say but not as white belly like the ky.
We caught sm almost solid black to a pretty copper brown,black is rare tho.
I read up on the meanmouth in other states and was hoping testing would not be important enough to do so.If I read between the lines in your post the mm will (can be)be a sm in the rocord books.

catch a bunch of what appears to be largemouth bass with tooth patches on their tongues on the st. francis. Always assumed those river bass were largemouth/ spotted bass hybrids. were they? Also, how come almost every bass i tongue hook dies rapidly?? I know there is a whopper blood vessel there.