Smallmouth? No - Something Else!

[CaptainNemo68]

Pulled this one in today. Thought it was a Smallmouth until I had it all the way in - and upon closer observation, it appears to be a Spotted Bass! The dorsal fins were connected like a Smallmouth. Caught it from the Appomattox River in Virginia.

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx132/CaptainNemo68/Fishing%20in%20Virginia/Fishing%20the%20Appomattox%20River%20in%20VA/Appomattox%20River%20fishing%20in%20Va/Spottedbass4.png]http://

[Al Agnew]

Picture is a little blurry but it certainly looks like a spotted bass. And that may not be a good thing. The Appomattox runs into the James and into Chesapeake Bay. Spotted bass were not native to rivers running directly toward the Atlantic like that. (Of course, neither were smallmouth bass, by the way.) But if they have been recently introduced into these rivers, they could cause trouble for the smallmouth.

[CaptainNemo68]

From what I have read, the Spotted Bass were introduced on purpose into certain rivers in Virginia years ago. possibly by Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (however, I can't find the source of "introduction"). I have caught all three types of black basses out of the Appomattox River in the past three months and hopefully it will not be a problem. The VDGIF website says that the Appomattox River is "home of the Kentucky Spotted Bass", so I guess they are pretty common but probably only in the upper half of the river. I have read that the Spotted Bass is much more rare downstream. So that explains why I have been unable to catch any Spots at Petersburg, but did catch Smallies and Largemouth there. This Spotted I caught was further upstream from that point (in Powhatan County). I'm not sure if the Spots even exist at all in lower half, especially where the Appomattox River runs into the James River.

Here is another pic of the same fish, also blurry (I didn't have my good camara with me at the time). You can see the lines of spots on the lower rear half of the fish.