# Help Identifing a Bass(?)



## McMish (Mar 23, 2009)

Hey Guy,

I was up at a tiny 1/4 acre pond inside the cuyahoga national forest and was catching TONS of these baby Largemouth bassesses.

Was kinda fun doing it but a disappointment since the biggest was only 9" 
never caught even a bluegill. everything was a largemouth bass and 1 catfish when i was set up for panfish.

But i came across something different about 7pm.

no picture but it was about the same size as the other it has not green or black color but more of a gray/white color. 

where a LM/SM/HY bass has "cheeks" when it opens its mouth this had none. like what you would see with a trout or salmon. 

it was hard to see any other identifying characteristics since it was only 8"

My best guess is that it was a "white bass" but i've never caught one of those. takemefishing.org's fishopedia site has a picture explorer and i think its the closes looking

any help would be great  thanks


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## riverKing (Jan 26, 2007)

a few things

In a tiny pond as you described, especially one not stocked by a private owner, I highly doubt that you caught and bass other than largemouth.
2 it is far more likely some type of sunfish, or one of thier hybrids
3 a picture always helps alot more than a description unless you memorize the number of fin rays on the anal and dorsal fins and wheather or not the spiny and soft dorsals where connected

I am imagining that what you caught at 8 inches in low numbers in a tiny pond in the woods was a warmouth, not to be confused with a green sunfish, wich most people call warmouth, but warmouth are not very common. dark mottled browns and blacks, to gray with a very spiny dorsal, large bass like mouth, a lighter spot just below the base of the soft dorsal. very agressive and was very close to probably woody cover when caught. could have also been a rock bass, very similar fish that is gray to black, but not found often in ponds
...could it have been a crappie??

hope this helps


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## McMish (Mar 23, 2009)

Hmm i don't know. and i wish i could have gotten a picture. no camera, but even if i did. he swallowed the hook kinda deeper and i wanted to return him quick.

I was not a crappie.

But "rockbass" is that the same as... 

Striped Bass - Morone saxatilis

Also known as: Rock, Rockfish, Striper


Cause is it is it looks very similar to what i caught


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## aRcHi3bUnKeR (Feb 1, 2009)

McMish said:


> Hmm i don't know. and i wish i could have gotten a picture. no camera, but even if i did. he swallowed the hook kinda deeper and i wanted to return him quick.
> 
> I was not a crappie.
> 
> ...


No they ARE NOT the same...here are links to photos of each, hope this helps in figuring out exactly what it was. IMO it sounds like a Rock Bass, whose average size is 6-10in.

Rock Bass - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Rock_Bass.jpg 

Striped Bass - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d0/Striped_Bass.jpg


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## McMish (Mar 23, 2009)

all i know is that it was white/gray in color. lol 

and i think that the pond WAS stocked if all i caught was small LM bass then i don't know

I'll Let you guys know if i come across another one


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## CO_Trout (May 10, 2008)

The first Rock bass I caught I also though it might have been a white bass or hybrid. Here is a good picture of one. the one I caught was a lot lighter than this one was. 

http://gallery.nanfa.org/v/members/dattilo/Rock+bass.JPG.html

Rock Bass in Ohio average color seems to be very light grey to almost whitish colored for the small ones (below 8 inches) but they get dark the bigger they get.


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