Another Fish Id (What The Heck Is This?)

[CaptainNemo68]

I pulled this in from the Appomattox River in Virginia and thought it was a smallmouth, but it doesn't quite look like a smallmouth. It has the rows of spots on the lower part of the body just like a spotted bass, but it doesn't have the horizontal diamond shaped line across the body that a spotted bass should have. The colorization is more like a smallmouth. It had the rough patch on the inside of the mouth. What in the world did I catch? Is this some type of hybrid??

[Stump bumper]

That would be a meanmouth to be weighed in here in a tournament it would have to be green, but I have seen a lot of brown meanmouth in Beaver lake. It happens when small mouth and spots bed close to each other.

[fishinwrench]

Could just be a dark Spotted bass.

[drew03cmc]

I think Wrench is right on this one. My first thought was redeye, but it has a few things missing for that one.

[Mitch f]

I think Drew and Wrench are correct, spotted bass. It's difficult to transfer true colors correct thru a lens but unless it was kind of brownish, it's not a hybrid IMO. BTW, as Al has pointed out before, a meanmouth is a cross between a LMB and a Smallie....not a spotted bass and a Smallie

[fishinwrench]

BTW, as Al has pointed out before, a meanmouth is a cross between a LMB and a Smallie....not a spotted bass and a smallie

Hmm, I always thought it was Sp/Smallie too. Ya sure? A quick gargle just now indicated it was Sp/Smallie as well, but the source may be questionable.

[Mitch f]

Hmm, I always thought it was Sp/Smallie too. Ya sure? A quick gargle just now indicated it was Sp/Smallie as well, but the source may be questionable.

Been talkin to Cheif again huh

[Quillback]

A pic of a mean and a spot I caught on Table Rock a couple of days ago. It's also my understanding that a meanmouth is a cross between a smallie and a spot.

[Gavin]

The Captains fish is a spot or a smallie/spot hybrid. QB's fish...looks like smallie/spot hybrid on the left and a spot on the right. There is alot of color variation among hybrids. Some are 50/50...others have crossed back a time or two.

[fishinwrench]

Been talkin to Cheif again huh

Hu? No not for far too long.... but if a MM is a LM/SM cross then I have mis-identified a bunch of them, cuz all the ones around here that I call MM's have rows of spots below a very faint (sometimes non-existent) lateral line and shadows of verticle bars but no chin dimples..

If there was no Kentucky in'em then where do the lines come from? The OP's fish looks like just a straight-up kentucky to me, just a little dark.