Is this one a Spot?

[Haris122]

Fished the Meramec with the kayak again, this time near Valley Park. The current was stronger than I liked, so I stuck close to the banks hoping to find slower water behind something obstructing flow. I didn't bother to take the anchor so even the slower water frequently altered the position of the kayak, throwing off my retrieve. I mainly fished a small white crankbait and that's what I got my bites on. Eventually I lucked into a spot near a pile of concrete chunks with slow water where I ran into several bites before I could lose hope in it too. Whatever bit kept getting off after a brief fight. After the 3rd time the bite subsided, and eventually I was forced  to try out other spots. Between the constant re-positioning to deal with current, and the fish that kept getting off, I started cursing up a storm. Anyways after several other spots that yielded nothing, I decided to hit that spot back up and finally got a bite that stuck. Once I got it to boat, this was my reward. I'm assuming a Spotted Bass. It was about 12". Turned out to be my only fish the 3.5 hours I was at it. But it put up a good fight. I know some of you won't like to hear it but, I let it go to bite another day.

 

[moguy1973]

Hard to tell the way you are holding it but it looks like it's a large mouth to me. 

[mjk86]

I keep passing up the river cuz it looks too muddy when I drive over 141.  Looks good in your pics though.   I've had decent luck throwing a white bandit 200.  Chrome on sunny days.  Tons of shad around there.  Could be a hybrid of some sort.  Did it have a rough patch on the tongue?  Looks like a spot to me but I could be wrong.

[Brian Jones]

I say spot based on the "broken" bars above its lateral line.  But as moguy said, it's kind of hard to tell. 

[Smalliebigs]

Spotted  Bass yep.... you would be blown away at some of the Spotted  bass down there....up to 18 inches, I have heard stories about some 19's but never saw them so it's  a story in my book.

[Al Agnew]

Photo is too blurry to be 100% certain, but I'm about 99% certain it's a spot.

[Haris122]

Yeah I didn't really have the best picture format for identification purposes and it didn't occur to me to check how far the upper jaw reaches back, if there's any rough patches on tongue, or how the top fins connect. I compared it to the Largemouth pictures of the ones I had caught recently and the one thing that kind of stood out to me was how quickly the body turns pale below the center stripe. That and the faint stripe near the top of the back, since I'm not sure Largemouth have that. Probably the least sure characteristics to use for identification. But it looks like Largemouth tend to have a more similar color scheme both above and below the stripe, that then more slowly turns white right around the belly. Most of the spotted pictures I referenced on the forum and other places online seemed to have them turn white below the center stripe at a more drastic rate when compared to their coloration above the center stripe. If it is a Spotted Bass, it would be my first one of 2016.

Mjk86, I'd say the river was still pretty muddy looking to me. I was actually expecting it to be clearer until I got to the actual ramp. And not only did I only catch this one, but the fish finder hardly marked any fish again for me, so either this stretch of the river is still a little cold and the fish haven't come out from wherever they hide, or it's more devoid of them than I thought in general. Or they're just hiding good where I don't bother to look. The fish finder is the most basic model I could find, so it does only downscan, so it doesn't cover much water, but I know further downstream I seem to come across many more fish on the sonar than I have the past few times I've been out around that section.

[Gavin]

Looks like a spot.