I caught this in a creek that has smallmouth, spotted, largemouth, and redeye bass, so hybridization is inevitable. To me it appears to have characteristics of both a spot and smallmouth, but not full characteristics of either one. The lines on the bottom half of the fish is a characteristic a spot would have and not a smallmouth, as far as I know. Basically, the rest of the fish looks like a smallmouth.
What say you?

If he's got spot genes in him, he'll have a rough little patch of teeth on the back of his tongue. Looks to me like what we always used to refer to as a kentucky redeye when we used to creek fish a bunch.

Looks like a Meanmouth

It's more likely a Coosa Bass (redeye) X Alabama Bass hybrid. There could be some smallmouth bass in there too. Shoot me a message, I just finished up a genetic study on a creek with all the above mentioned.

Don't know about the fish, but I am going with Angus cross on the pile of crap. Whatever the fish is, it is colored up nicely. Appears blue on the bottom side.

Rock bass maybe

What the crap is that hanging out of its mouth?

I sent you a pm

haha, believe it or not that's actually rotted moss. It does look just like cow crap and I thought that myself when looking at the pic after I took it.

crawfish soft plastic

Could you post a pic of it please? Im betting my boy would like to try them in the river here.

I am gonna agree with the trout bum. Since he studies bass for a living, it's pretty likely that he knows more than the rest of us put together on this subject.

But if I caught that fish, I would say that it is a red-eye and never think twice about it. It looks just like one to me.

Very interesting. The mouth looks pretty big for a smallie but the rest looks spot on including the wide base of the tail. Smallie redeye mix is my guess. Don't think it has any spot in it.

Would have thought it was a redeye, also. (Tallapoosa)
Might have been a question (to me) about how wide and
seemingly, fat it is, though.

I catch some really dark spots with a lot of yellow on the warrior river that look similar. I'd post a picture but I don't know how anymore

He looks big enough to fry

Don’t look anything like a smallmouth or spot to me. Looks like a red eye.

You gotta look at a few thousand to pick up on the nuances. I will say that phenotype is proving to be VERY unreliable in identifying hybrids in black bass. It is sometimes obvious, but with backcrossing, etc., it gets pretty impossible without the use of genetics to confirm.

So what do you think about the lower fish in this photo?



When I lifted him into the boat, I saw his belly and his orange fins and tail and told my fishing partner he was a nice red-eye. Then when I was unhooking him I saw the lines on the upper half of him and said I was wrong, that he was just a spot. And then when I started to clean him I decided his ancestry was uncertain. My amateurish opinion is that he is good candidate for a spot/red-eye cross. I put the spot, or Alabama bass, in the photo for contrast.

I'd say you're probably right, PCP. It's hard to tell for sure without seeing some of the coloration, live. It's definitely got some Alabama bass in it.