Small Mouth Bass ID

I have never seen a SMB in the flesh. A couple weeks ago a saw red eyes and horizontal bands on the head and thought "AHA!" ... neglecting the tidy row of spots along the side    Oh well, I'm new, I know  

So I read up (I thought). No mention of red eyes, rare mention of horizontal markings on the head, pretty consistent mention of vertical bars on the body and a "dirty belly", but generally coloring is disclaimed. A couple mentioned LMB's dorsal fin being split front and back (I've never paid attention) while SMB's are joined.  All seemed to agree the upper jaw terminated just at the back of the eye, but whether while the mouth is open or not is inconsistent.

Every LMB I've caught had bold, dark markings, on an olive base; a cave of a mouth and come hither black eyes. It's all I've ever much noticed.

So I catch this guy yesterday. Actually no distinctive marking at all, but bright shiny brass/bronze/gold colored with speckles. The upper jaw terminates just at the back of his red eye, and the dorsal is joined. His mouth didn't have that gaping cave quality as well, but that's pretty subjective I guess. AHA! I think... And then I get this friendly pm today  

Here are the pictures. The full length one doesn't show the color well. He definitely wasn't silver.

But more importantly, what are the definitive traits a guy can rely on? Or is it like pornography, you know them when you see them?  

No big deal Ben, I misidentified this fish from Melones as a smallmouth. It's a redeye bass if you ever catch one!

Jeff

Or is it like pornography, you know them when you see them?  

Friendly pm  and that is your answer Ben.  When you see a real smallie, you'll know it immediately with no guesswork needed.  Melones has a very small smallie population since the spots pretty much kick their *** in reproduction.

like i said, hit tulloch and you'll pretty much be in smallie heaven.

I can usually tell if the fish is a smallie or a LM or a spot before i see them just by the way they fight.  Once you hook up with a SM, you'll know what i mean.

A lot of lakes in California are stocked with spotted bass which almost seem like hybrids of smallmouth and largemouth bass.   The coloration is more like a largemouth, but the connected dorsal fin and smaller mouth are like a smallmouth.

There are are few lakes in California that are stocked with the redeyed bass that Jeff mentioned.  They too look like a hybrid of largemouth and smallmouth but tend to have a slightly more smallmouth appearance than the spotted bass.

By the way, they actually aren't hybrids, they are true species.

Melones Lake just so happens to have both spotted and redeyed bass.  In this case, I'm likely to call that one a spotted bass.

-Brian

A lot of shallow dwelling largemouth will have a very light color. Some almost look white. I want to hit Tulloch soon if you want to join me and we will scope out some smallies. Or hit Fox Grove park on the Tuolomne, lots of smallies in there (where I got my PB smallie)

Jeff

I forgot to mention this guy had a tooth on his tongue.  A spot then?

Jeff, either place is cool. I've been wanting to do Fox Grove for a while.

Ben

I've posted this before, but I find this a good reference for identifying "black" bass.

http://www.tnfish.org/FishIdentificationID_TWRA/TWRA_BlackBass_Identification_Key.htm

Here's a few smallies that I have caught.

Here's a few smallies that I have caught.

#3 looks like a twin to the one I caught in terms of the dorsal fin and coloring... ie lack of vertical lines, brass/gold color, especially in the afternoon sunlight like that. In less bright light mine showed more speckles than I see there. Your's is fatter, mine had some damage from prior catch and release I suspect (one gill plate had an open sore, some dicey looking hook marks on his lower jaw...).

What made you conclude it was a smallie?

I guess it's not as straight forward as look for A,B,C ...

I would say largie or spot myself...next time pull the dorsal fin up, and snap a pic, that's what I look for, if I care to look.  In Tui Chub's third pic, there is a distinct 1/8th of an inch of fin between the two dorsal fins of the smallie.  A LMB will have much less than that.  The jaw shot shows the mouth seems large enough for a LMB.  The rough spot on the toungue says spot.  Hmmm, maybe I'm stumped on this one.

Good luck in the ID process.

HB

In Tui Chub's third pic, there is a distinct 1/8th of an inch of fin between the two dorsal fins of the smallie.  A LMB will have much less than that.

If you look at Brian Steves link, the dorsal looked like the spot or smallie (or Tui Chub's third pic), the "bridge" they point out was at least 1/4" tall clearly connecting the front and rear, not at all like the LMB example. The jaw is nowhere near as long as the LMB example, but longer than the other two.

If the dorsal is definitive, it looks like the real challenge is deciding between spot and smallie if you lack distinct horizontal or vertical markings.

Appreciate the help guys.

Ben

Here's a few smallies that I have caught.

#3 looks like a twin to the one I caught in terms of the dorsal fin and coloring... ie lack of vertical lines, brass/gold color, especially in the afternoon sunlight like that. In less bright light mine showed more speckles than I see there. Your's is fatter, mine had some damage from prior catch and release I suspect (one gill plate had an open sore, some dicey looking hook marks on his lower jaw...).

What made you conclude it was a smallie?

I guess it's not as straight forward as look for A,B,C ...

I've caught smallies that were quite light, and one so dark it looked black as it was swimming by. For the life of me, I can't find a picture of the dark one, but here's a picture of a light one:



Where it differs from yours:

1) No lateral band of darker coloration, unlike a spot or largemouth.
2) While lightish colored, there's no sense of "silver" or "shimmer" on the sides, unlike spots and largemouth.

Here's an LMB caught from the same hole, within minutes of catching the above smallie. Notice the how the caudal area seems really reflective. I've never seen sort of shimmer on any smallie that I've caught, and I've caught them from Maine to the American River, Minnesota to Virginia.



I want to say thanks to Brian and Jeff for pointing out that we have Redeye bass here in CA. I might just have to take a trip

Tui Chub - I see your address, and look at the geography in your pictures, and wonder if you're catching smallies in the Truckee?

Regards,
Scott

 

   When I look at those pictures all I see are the breaded fillets in the pan frying up, back when we camped on the McCloud river arm of Shasta!  Yum!

Tui Chub - I see your address, and look at the geography in your pictures, and wonder if you're catching smallies in the Truckee?

Regards,
Scott

Never caught a smallie in the Truckee but I've never tried.  These are from the Carson River around the Dayton area (east of Carson City).  Lots of smallmouth in the river, the problem is they're full of mercury and shouldn't be eaten.

http://ndow.org/fish/health/mercury_results.pdf
http://health.nv.gov/PDFs/BFHS/HEALTHADVISORYLahontan2007.pdf
http://ndow.org/fish/health/Consumption%20Tables.pdf

That looks like a Clearlake cookie cutter 2 pound lmb to me.