OK, here's the memo from Bill Reeves again. It was put out to clarify issues caused by increasing creel limits on spots in the upland lakes. Andy's bass probably is a "meanmouth". </p>
The problem is when a fisherman catches a "toothed tongue, brownish looking" bass that's less than 18" long and he keeps it. Bill's memo refers to spot/largemouth hybrids. He doesn't specifically mention spot/smallmouth hybrids. According to "fishes of Tennessee", smallmouth sometimes show a tongue patch.</p>
What's a feller to do!!!
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Spotted Bass Identification and Creel Limits
Recently TWRA received several calls and correspondence from anglers expressing concern about spotted bass identification and their more liberal creel limits in certain Tennessee reservoirs. These anglers were concerned that they might unintentionally keep numbers of largemouth bass over the limit while attempting to limit out on spotted bass. Several years ago when we first proposed liberalizing creel limits on spotted bass in east Tennessee we were also concerned with this and looked for one single characteristic that both anglers and officers could rely on. The character we settled on was the small patch of teeth on the tongue- spotted bass have them, largemouth bass generally do not. The word “generally” refers to the unusual trait of largemouth bass to occasionally exhibit a small tooth patch. This oddity shows up in one in every 100 to 150 largemouth bass. <font color="#cc0000">So even if the bass with a tooth patch is a largemouth, for simplicity sake, we consider it to be a spotted bass.</font> That way no one has to wonder if they are exceeding the limit or what species of bass they are keeping. Please refer to the Fishing Guide for a drawing depicting the location of the tooth patch in the mouth cavity.
You may have wondered why we liberalized creel limits on spotted bass in the first place. Why should we be worried about this small member of the black bass family that usually measures less than 12-inches in length? Several years of fairly intense sampling of black bass populations in reservoirs have indicated that in certain waterbodies, the proportion of spotted bass in the population is increasing, apparently displacing largemouth and smallmouth. In some instances, the percentage of spotted bass in electrofishing sampling has increased from less than 20% to currently exceeding 50%. The quality of the black bass fishery- fewer largemouth and smallmouth- is at stake. Additionally, pound for pound spotted bass are recognized by many anglers and biologists alike as the scrappiest and most aggressive of the black basses, out competing largemouth and smallmouth for food and space. Their food habits are worrisome as well. Studies 10 years ago at Norris Lake indicated that adult spotted bass feed more heavily on black bass offspring
(all 3 species) than did largemouth and smallmouth. So to counteract this shift in spotted bass abundance and dominance, we have proposed more liberal creel limits on these reservoirs that allow anglers to take home more of these smaller cousins of the more preferred largemouth and smallmouth. So far, the reservoir type exhibiting this population shift has been upland, storage impoundments with high water clarity. However, anglers around Chattanooga are expressing concern for increasing spotted bass catch rates they are seeing on Nickajack and Chickamauga, two mainstream impoundments. TWRA is currently evaluating this situation and we will report the findings to our Commission sometime next summer.
What can you do as an angler to protect largemouth and smallmouth bass fisheries? <font color="#cc3300">If you fish waters with liberalized spotted bass creel limits, please take as many as you can of all sizes, within the creel limit, of course. Encourage other anglers to do the same.</font> Our creel surveys show that anglers have been reluctant, so far, to focus their efforts on harvesting spotted bass in the lakes with liberal creel limits. Anglers need to realize that TWRA does not have the manpower to remove these tiny dynamos from all these bodies of water for you. You must do it for yourself and for the other anglers that enjoy the bounty of fishing experiences we have in Tennessee.
Bill Reeves
TWRA
Fisheries Chief
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So hard to tell from a pic. I'm happy we have plenty of both species here in Chattanooga - Nice Fish - Congrats emoThumbsup
