# Spotted Bass Vs Largemouth



## skycruiser

I was looking at the state records and the spotted bass record is 5.25lbs...that seems pretty low to me. in fact, my buddy caught this 6lb 10oz Bass in April, and unless i dont know the difference between a kentucky spot and a largemouth, this would have stood to break the state record. what says you?

here's a spotted bass record pic from espn. the spots are definately more defined than my buddies fish, but we believe it to be a spotted bass nonetheless









Here's a couple pics of my buddy's 6lb 10oz


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## skycruiser

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?


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## timmyv

Definately a largemouth..


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## ROCKS

Yep,it's a largemouth for sure.


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## Marshall

Its a largemouth 100 percent.


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## Dandrews

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 &#8220;now THAT'S a funky looking largemouth&#8221;, 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&#8221;.


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## Salmonid

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


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## fishingredhawk

Largemouth, no doubt about it


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## fishingredhawk

nice fish!


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## lordofthepunks

Salmonid said:


> 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.


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## Bad Bub

Salmonid said:


> 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.


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## Steve Aquilo

Largey 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## sherman51

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


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## multi species angler

That is correct also.


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## riverKing

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.


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## NCbassattack

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.


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## hailtothethief

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


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