Smallmouth or largemouth?

Are there any experts at fish id lurking in this forum?...I caught this fish, which may be a Smallmouth, on Saturday.  It hit my crank, a 12 foot deep-diver, and seconds later did a two foot high somersault in the air.  When I lipped it, I noticed its mouth seemed small for its size, and it had a slightly different color on its belly.  Looking at the pics, I noticed the smallies caught by others in local waters have redish eye color, instead of the black eye of a largemouth.  Could the fish I caught be a smallmouth?

Looks like a smallmouth to me and your description of it's mouth size matches.  I'm a bit surprised.. it sounds like the HobieBlue (one of our resident bass masters) has never caught a smallmouth.   Say it isn't so.  If it is so.. you really need to get away from the delta more often and do some smallmouth fishing. They're a blast.

Looks like a delta smallmouth to me. Smallis in the delta look a lot different than smallmouth from lakes. Here are some of the smallies I have caught out of the delta for comparison.

I've caught a lot of smallies in lakes (Shasta, Trinity, Oroville, Naciamento, San Antonio...), but the coloration threw me for a bit.  Usually the ones I have caught are a dark bronze color.  I also wasn't expecting a smallmouth in that location.  Thanks for the info Brian and Jeff.

Smallie look how The dorsal fins are connected and not so much on your LMB

I've caught a lot of smallies in lakes (Shasta, Trinity, Oroville, Naciamento, San Antonio...), but the coloration threw me for a bit.  Usually the ones I have caught are a dark bronze color.  I also wasn't expecting a smallmouth in that location.  Thanks for the info Brian and Jeff.

I figured you had.  I think I'm just jealous of all your great largemouth reports.

I knew it was a smallie...I also noticed the dorsal fin, and read somewhere once that that was a key difference.  Thanks all for the input. 

CASE CLOSED: smallmouth it is.

If the coloration fooled you then it might be a spotted bass. Spotted have the smaller mouth but are green.

The easy way to tell the difference is to close the mouth and if the upper jaw extends beyond the eye it is a large mouth if it does not it is a small mouth. The small mouth also has a rough tongue where as the large mouth does not also like mickfish mentioned the dorsal fins are a give away as well. The spotted bass much like the small mouth but will have horizontal markings while the small mouth markings will be vertical. I see there is not much color to your small mouth. Thats cause the lack of sunlight. In clear water water the markings show better. Same if you caught it in deep water you would get a bass with less markings.

Well, you're all wrong........
It's an Estonian Mockingfish.....

the Estonian Mockingfish is, as you may surmise, a non-native species carried by fishermen the breadth of Russia and rowed across the Bearing Sea to Alaska where it from there, has re-distributed down to the lower 48.

E Mockingfish are able to simulate the appearance of other fish in the waters in which they are caught.

Proof-of-which.......is that you dubes were all fooled.

So there yu'are.....
A feller can never be too sure.....

Judd

Nah, it's a rock bass. Or a warmouth. Or a ...
Ooooo, I like mystery fish!
 

Sounds like it has been established, but ...

Well, you're all wrong........
It's an Estonian Mockingfish.....

the Estonian Mockingfish is, as you may surmise, a non-native species carried by fishermen the breadth of Russia and rowed across the Bearing Sea to Alaska where it from there, has re-distributed down to the lower 48.

E Mockingfish are able to simulate the appearance of other fish in the waters in which they are caught.

Proof-of-which.......is that you dubes were all fooled.

So there yu'are.....
A feller can never be too sure.....

... this is way random.   

Michael

Estonian Mockingfish--- --I love it!!

Thanks reelfish for the explanation of dimmed colors.  If you look closely at the picture, a few vertical bars are visable, but very faint.  When I caught it, I was pretty sure it was a smallie (I didn't even close the mouth to check), but someone at the dock said the picture looked like a largemouth.  This fish's mouth was smooth, unlike Spotted Bass which have a kinda toothy area on the lips and toungue, which I know from catching dozens of them on Lake Naciamento and having shredded thumbs at the end of the day.

Again, thanks for all the input and confirmation.  It was a special catch in the delta for me (my first smallie from the yak, and in an unexpected area).