Floated Sat.

[fishinSWMO]

I floated sat. since the fishing was so good friday. Got started about 12 on a different creek body, finished up about 9. Cranks and soft plastics worked well. I love the blueish tint of the spots. The fishings been great this weekend, hope everyone got out some to enjoy it.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Looks like you struck gold again. Hard to stay home when they are biting like they are right now!

[Buzz]

Wow. Two good days in a row. You must be doing something right. Nice fish.

[fishinSWMO]

Thanks guys

[Wayne SW/MO]

I've noticed in some of Chief's Goggle Eye pictures and the one you just posted, they seem to have a different mottling than those on this side of the ridge. I don't know if its my imagination, but they seem to have more contrast.

[Al Agnew]

Wayne, check out FlyfishOK's photos in the "Buffalo River Float/Fish Trip 7/17/10" in the Buffalo River forum. That's a typical Ozark bass. The photo above looks like a pretty typical shadow bass. I think we discussed the situation in the Neosho tributaries a while back, but I've checked around a bit more, and it seems that in those rivers shadow bass may be native and northern rock bass introduced, with some interbreeding. At any rate the fish in the Spring, Shoal Creek, and Elk are a different species from those in the upper White River system, including the James, Beaver Creek, and North Fork. Ozark bass are native only to the upper White River system and are the only native goggle-eye in that system. Shadow bass are native to the streams of Southeast MO including the Black, Current, and St. Francis, and also tributaries of the Arkansas River, which would include all the streams running into the Grand and Neosho (and they are also native to the upper Ouachita). It's now believed that northern rock bass were only native to the Meramec River system in the Ozarks, but were widely stocked in other streams at one time. Apparently there were NO native goggle-eye in the Gasconade and Osage river systems, but now those streams are full of introduced northern rock bass.

I'll see if I can find a good photo from my archives of a northern rock bass from the Meramec. But, maybe the easiest way to start to tell the three species apart, other than where you catch them, is to look at the small black spots. On northern rock bass, the black spots are in more or less unbroken rows, one spot for each scale all over the sides of the fish. In shadow bass the dark spots are mainly seen on most scales within the big dark blotches on the sides. In Ozark bass the dark spots are more randomly scattered over the sides.

Problem is, as I've been finding, the northern rock bass readily interbreeds with the shadow bass, so wherever either species was introduced in the past and the other species was native, you find a lot of hybrids. Apparently Ozark bass don't hybridize with the other two species.

[Stoneroller]

the Rock Bass, Ambloplites rupestris, has 21-25 scales across it's breast (pectoral to pectoral) and rows of black spots whereas the Ozark Bass, Ambloplites constellatus, has 20-26 scales across it's breast and a freckled pattern on it's side. Ambloplites ariommus, the Shadow Bass has 15-18 scale rows across it's breast supposedly 'similar' to the Rock bass in appearance but with irregular marbling of brown or grey on light green or brown on its side.

based on this picture i'm going to lean towards the rock bass. I originally thought shadow bass as soon as I saw it, but after looking at this picture for a while and referencing a couple of books i'm going to lean towards Rock Bass. without scale counts though, its really only a guess. keeping in mind rock bass can change how dark their vertical stripes are at will just like a smallie can be a light golden color all the way to near black, depends on their mood (and a few other factors like background, sunlight, etc).

this kind of thing produced many sleepless nights for me in college before ichthyology practicals. try identifying fish once they've been preserved and have no color. still much easier than doing vein counts on dragonfly wings.

[fishinSWMO]

here are a couple more small fish photos from yesterday.

[Stoneroller]

Al, I think you hit the nail on the head with they hybridization of the rock bass and shadow bass up top, cause in these pictures you can clearly see the rock bass in the upper picture. the bottom one looks like a warmouth, Lepomis gulosus to me.

[Al Agnew]

I agree, that one just above looks like all rock bass to me, and the one in the first group of photos looks just like the shadow bass I catch in the St. Francis River. And I also agree the one at the bottom is a warmouth. Warmouth are really neat looking fish, and they do vary in appearance from stream to stream.