# help with a fish id and pics from the last few trips out.



## scappy193 (May 11, 2009)

went to my usual spot for some fall lm a few days ago. i caught a few and i am not sure what they are. from looking at other pics on the internet i think they might be redeye bass but not sure anyone have any ideas? btw their eyes are blood shot red it is kind of hard to see in the pic. also i thought i'd throw in some of the others i've caught over the last month.


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## fish on! (Oct 15, 2009)

Could be a rock bass?


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## mkombe (May 23, 2007)

I dont believe those are rockies....but, judging by their eyes i would say they hung out with me at the bar two weekends ago and had a few too many drinks.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Those first two fish look like spotted bass to me.

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/SpeciesGuideIndex/spottedbass/tabid/6765/Default.aspx

They are pretty common. I catch them in the Hocking River a lot and in a large creek I fish in SE Ohio.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

From top to bottom...I see...

Largemouth
Largemouth
Smallie Smallie
Largemouth Largemouth
Saugeye Saugeye

If you were in the Scioto, Darby, Big Walnut, Little Walnut, or Alum.....those Largemouth could be spotted bass. Google search spotted bass and do a little research on them. That should help. No redeye bass here in Ohio.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

This is the last spot I caught from the Hocking:










Compare with the top 2, and I believe we have a match...


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## scappy193 (May 11, 2009)

Yeah that def looks like mine. the reason i thought they are redeyes is because i caught them in a pond that used to a pay lake and thought they were stocked. that and they have red eyes. my other guess was spot becuase they do live in ohio but it was hard to differentiate between the pics i saw the internet.


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## OHbass-nut (Jun 17, 2009)

I think that's a spotted bass. You can tell because the mouth does not extend past the eye as it would on a largemouth bass.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

If you caught them in a pond....largemouth.


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## imbassin (Mar 10, 2008)

spotted bass have a rough spot on there toung. that is how i allways tell.
from top to bottom i see
spot 
spot
smallie 
smallie
largemouth
largemouth
saugeye
saugeye


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## bman (Apr 20, 2009)

110% certain that's a spot. I've caught a few in the Hocking and more than a few in the lower Scioto. They fight like mad and are more aggressive than their cousins LMB and SMB!


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## bman (Apr 20, 2009)

imbassin said:


> spotted bass have a rough spot on there toung. that is how i allways tell.
> from top to bottom i see
> spot
> spot
> ...


Dead on!


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## peple of the perch (Sep 13, 2004)

I agree spots and smallies.


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## Wiper Swiper (May 24, 2005)

imbassin said:


> spot
> spot
> smallie
> smallie
> ...


Yep...I don't even see one that's questionable.


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## bgrapala (Nov 1, 2008)

looks like all Black Crappie to me!!


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

MUskie except for the last two they are bluegill


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Mushijobah said:


> If you caught them in a pond....largemouth.


Am I going to have to get JB's expert opinion on this? 

Here is a good ID chart:










Take note of the jaw bone protruding past the eye of the largemouth bass in this photo. Now compare that to the first photo of this thread, I will even draw a line so you can clearly see the jaw bone:


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

JB only has one year of fish IDing on me .

I've seen plenty of young largemouths that have reddish eyes and have not yet fully developed a gap in their dorsal or a large stretching mouth. It doesn't make sense to be catching spotted bass in a pond unless some goofball stocked it or it gets flooded anually by Darby or Scioto.

Now if it is NOT a pond (I am only saying it is in theory, I clearly said that in my first post), I am going with spotted bass. After IDing fish for for a living for 2 years, you realize it takes more than just a picture to accurately ID a fish.


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## Bassinb4sunup (Sep 23, 2009)

Correct me if im wrong but, I believe a tell tale sign of spots is they have a small patch of teeth on their tongue.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

I've caught largemouth with tongue teeth too.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Mushijobah said:


> JB only has one year of fish IDing on me .
> 
> I've seen plenty of young largemouths that have reddish eyes and have not yet fully developed a gap in their dorsal or a large stretching mouth. It doesn't make sense to be catching spotted bass in a pond unless some goofball stocked it or it gets flooded anually by Darby or Scioto.
> 
> Now if it is NOT a pond (I am only saying it is in theory, I clearly said that in my first post), I am going with spotted bass. After IDing fish for for a living for 2 years, you realize it takes more than just a picture to accurately ID a fish.


I fish a friend's pond every now and then and catch sauger and the occasional smallmouth...idiots stock crazy things, there's more bucket biologists out there than we need! 

My roommate had 3 small largemouth bass in an aquarium at our place last year, JB was witness to the feeding carnage a time or two. Even when they were 3-4 inches long, their jaw line went past their eye. Trust me young grasshopper, those are spotted bass. 

On a side note, you might think keeping bass in an aquarium is a cool idea...until you realize how much those dang things eat! We kept them for nearly a year, dumping small minnows in constantly. For about a week when I wasn't around, my roommate forgot to feed them, and when he realized it, we only had one bass left. The other two were nowhere to be found. The cannibalistic survivor was returned to the Hocking.


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## scappy193 (May 11, 2009)

thanks for the help guys. i have heard about the toothy tongue but i didn't think to look. the pond i fish is about 20 yds from the big darby. i'm not sure if it floods into the pond though. i know of one guy who caught a saugeye out of this pond and about a month ago i hooked into a 5+ lb. smallie but he spit the lure with an amazing arial move (i crap you not abuot the size). so maybe it does flood. i do know it was a pay lake at one time so it may have been stocked along time ago with spots. anyways thanks again for the help.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Well that explains it! Sounds like a good spot.


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

mushi, those are easy spots man, have you been working with too many notropis lately and forgoten the easy ones lol
now whats intresting is the ID pictures shown by cream have a spotted bass that is an upper tennesee or alabama drainege fish. Those are always used as the "typical" spots and our northern fish look totally different. give it a few years I bet they make them a separate species.

I love ponds like that, you can manage those small ones for all sorts of bizzare fish. nobody has put any pirranha in there yet have they


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## scappy193 (May 11, 2009)

haha no i haven't heard or seen any. that is a perfect little pond for somebody to throw a fish like that in though. not that it hasn't happend for sure but as much as i fish there i don't think so.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Nah, I'm in the field of not IDing fish for a living these days.


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