species help!!!

[josh.schreiber]

One of my first posts on here was a crappie trip to Madison County Lake, where I accidentally caught a 3-15 "largemouth."
I was going through and organizing my fishing pictures when I ran across that fish again. Looking closer at it, the mouth looks waay too small to be a lm. Doesn't look like a smallie though.
Whats are the experts verdicts? Where I fish spaaaats are few and far between. Is it a spaat or just a really chunky, small-mouthed lm?
thanks for the help folks
ps--yes, that was taken in my "porker" days emoRedface

 

[hoggerhead]

definatley a spot. You can see the darker stripes just below the eyes. nice one too!

 

[Skeeter]

Looks like a spot to me. Found this too.... http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/bkbass_diagrams.phtml

 

[Luketrician]

it's a spaaat! Nice-n too!

 

[craazyboutbass]

That would just be a largemouth.... I've caught largemouth like that in the past. Take a look at the jawline, when you close it's mouth, it would definatly extend pass the eye. I've also held hundreds of spotted bass, and the markings just don't go along on that fish.

Sorry, that would've been a TOAD spaaat for sure, but it's just a largemouth with a smaller mouth.

 

[SpurHunter]

Looks like a spotted LMto me. IMHO

 

[polo-dog]

The fish looks most like a LM to me. Without the mouth closed it it really hard to tell whether the angle of the jaw protrudes past the eye or not. I would expect that the fish was caught in pretty clear water as LM tend to have more color and be less drab when they are caught from clear water and become more drab when in turbid water. Did the fish have a tongue patch? If so I would say that it at least is a hybrid between a LM and a spot. If you notice the dorsal fins on the fish are separate. That is a characteristic of a LM as spotted bass tend to have the spiny dorsal fin and the soft dorsal fins connect or nearly connect. Here are a couple of really good descriptions and pics of LM and spots from the Texas state website:

Spot: http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~tbonner/txfishes/micropterus punctulatus.htm

LM: http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~tbonner/txfishes/micropterus salmoides.htm

You can see how the two fins on the top are connected in the spot and disconnected or at least nearly disconnected in the LM from these pics.

Like I said before, it could easily be a hybrid as they are very common and make it tough to distinguish the two. Just be sure that if you keep a fish like that and it's less than 15 inches that it has a tooth patch so when the TWRA guys stop you they will believe that it's a spot.

 

[GAfisherman]

Def appears to be a spot to me. The markings and the jaw line scream SPOTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[craazyboutbass]

Another thing, if it were a spot... The fish would have a more roundish figure. Laregmouth can grow longer and wider than spots....</p>

Spotted bass don't grow as long as largemouth, so when they feed, their body just get rounder and fatter.
</p>

</p>

Here is a spot...</p>

 

[RattleTrapper]

My vote goes to Largemouth or maybe a crossbreed as Polo has suggested. One thing I know for sure though, that fatty looks a lot more than 3-15! (the fish, not you of course...) emoPoke

 

[craazyboutbass]

Is there any bass expert that has anything to say about this?!

 

[GAfisherman]

maybe a hybrid, good point polo. It def looks different.

 

[mallardecho]

It is a really nice fish. Yep, that is what it is, no doubt about it.

 

[Bprice]

That is a healthy prespawn largemouth. You'll notice the small gap between the dorsal fins, spots are totally connected. I know Madison County Lake stocked Florida Strains. They typically are more "bullish" and tend to have smaller heads and more "shoulders" </p>

Also, I'm fairly positive that MCL has never stocked Spotted Bass, we are only talking about a small lake (prob 30-50 acres).</p>

 

[josh.schreiber]

10-4
thanks for the input guys.
rattle: im gonna have to compare my rapala digital w/ someone's elses. thats about the 4th fish this year that looks far more than what the scale read.

 

[josh.schreiber]

thread hijacked (...by myself!)

 

[minner]

Got to agree with Bprice on this one. I grew up fishing the Florida strain bass and at first glance that is exactly what I thought.............then I read his post.....</p>

</p>

</p>

100% agree</p>

 

[RattleTrapper]

Yeah buddy, you may want to check those scales. If I was going to estimate (which I'll admit I'm not the best at doing) I would have guessed around 5 lbs. Of course it is hard to tell from a picture.

 

[MadBomber]

I'm guessing LM/spot hybrid of some proportion. It doesn't have to be a first generation hybrid (50/50) it could be some other combination (75/25)???

 

[SpurHunter]

Here is a 4.5lb pig spot a friend of mine caught in May on Chick next to a similar sized LM.