looking a little deeper, you can tell the difference in the dorsal fin...the dorsal of the spot doesn't look like the one of my buddy's...so most likely it's a LM right?

 

Definately a largemouth..

 

Yep,it's a largemouth for sure.

 

Its a largemouth 100 percent.

 

I'm with everybody, it's a largemouth 100%.
Most of the time when I catch a spot it takes me a minute to figure it out. I look at it and think “now THAT'S a funky looking largemouth”, then it dawns on me. I looked at picture of a spot I caught last year and I remember it having red eyes but I can't tell from the picture. I don't think I've seen one over 14" or 15”.

 

I thought the easiest way to tell the difference is that a Spot, has teeth on the toungue whereas the LM bass does not. This is correct, right?? since I fish many Ohio River tribs, we always use that rule as a 10-12" LM looks just like a spot from these waters.

Salmonid

 

Largemouth, no doubt about it

 

nice fish!

 

I thought the easiest way to tell the difference is that a Spot, has teeth on the toungue whereas the LM bass does not. This is correct, right?? since I fish many Ohio River tribs, we always use that rule as a 10-12" LM looks just like a spot from these waters.

Salmonid

thats right, muskingam river is infested with spots. spots have a small, yellow patch of bristles on the tongue.

 

I thought the easiest way to tell the difference is that a Spot, has teeth on the toungue whereas the LM bass does not. This is correct, right?? since I fish many Ohio River tribs, we always use that rule as a 10-12" LM looks just like a spot from these waters.

Salmonid

this is a good indicator and we use it as well, but some biologist's say this is not alway's true. i fish the upper pools of the ohio river and in the summer i target spotted bass almost exclusively due to the fact that's it's been real tough to get a limit of smallies the last couple of years. my biggest so far was a 3lb. 1oz. spot that really drew a crowd at the weigh in. we just don't have the deep water with current that it takes to grow big spots in ohio. i believe that record is out there to be had, but spotted bass over 15 inches are pretty hard to come by. they require a different approach than most guys are willing to put the time into. and there just aren't that many of them.

 

Largey


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isn't a spot just a large mouth bass that has a small mouth mouth? on a large mouth the mouth extends past the eye. on a spot the mouth does not extend past the eye. thats what I've always been told.
sherman

 

That is correct also.

 

The state record is probably a mis identified largemouth. We have northern spotted bass, they have now split spotted bass into several species. Some of the southern strains get large, ours do not. The largest I have ever seen was just over 17in, and we shocked it in ky. In Ohio the largest I have seen was 16in.
The fish in the OP is a largemouth, if you catch it in a pond, it's likely not a spot.

 

The spotted bass we have in some of our lakes here in NC are really not spots at all, but Alabama bass, found to be a totally different species entirely. But they do resemble them very much. A guy released one from a mountain lake that would have shattered our state record. There's a thread on here about it. Also, these fish will hybridize with largemouth, producing fish that have characteristics of both species. The fish y'all caught has a bigger mouth than a spot or Bama, but otherwise shows some spotted bass/Alabama bass features.

 

This one is a baby small mouth. Looks different than the adults. Beats up the creek chubs no problem.