Replica Mounts

[MOPanfisher]

The reason the cattle thing doesn't work is all the cattle are the same species.  You can still get white calves from black cattle, you won't get spotted bass from largemouth bass.  So the comparison is completely off.  If you used say sheep and cattle and said the sheep reproduce faster and don't grow as fast, then followed it with the farmer removing 10-15% (no way are fishermen going to remove 10 to 15% of the spotted bass every year from a lake the size of Stockton) of the sheep every year, maybe, it would still depend on some population dynamic numbers, but, yes it could have some comparison.  the MLL set by MDC has a lot of things that play in, not the least of which is growth rates and patterns, hence the bass MLL on Pomme is 13" and crappie are 9".  I am curious enough now I will do a search and see if I can find any references to genetic differences in southern and northern spotted bass. If I find anything useful I will happily link it.

[MOPanfisher]

OK, it didn't take too long to find a little bit of info.  Short version.  There is indeed at least one subspecies of Spotted bass, the Alabama Spotted Bass, a larger, more aggressive, faster growing version.  Seems analogous to a florida strain largemouth. 

From Wikipedia.

In 2010, the scientific community officially recognized a separate subspecies of spotted bass, native to the Tallapoosa and Coosa Rivers, and their lakes. This species is commonly known as the "Alabama spotted bass" (M. henshalli) and known locally as the "Coosa spotted bass", not to be confused with the "red-eye Coosa bass" found in northeast Georgia.^[1]

The Alabama spotted is highly prized as a gamefish and average size is much larger than the more common Kentucky spotted bass. The current record spotted bass, caught in pine Flat Lake, California, weighed 10.27 lb.^[2]

 

Not sure what this was from, appeared to be an individuals blog.

One of the most common challenges when managing spotted bass fisheries is to maintain adequate growth rates of the fish. In clear waters with low nutrients, spotted bass populations can become dominated by small, slow growing individuals. Slot limits have been used as a management tool to encourage anglers to harvest the smaller fish. Slot limits are aimed at reducing the numbers of small fish, maintaining fast growth for the remaining fish, and increasing the number of large spotted bass for anglers to catch. A high-quality spotted bass fishery with a slot limit is Lewis Smith Lake in Alabama, where anglers are encouraged to keep spotted bass less than 13 inches. Alabama DNR reports some positive influence of the slot limit at this lake.

 

And finally from an In-Fisherman article. 

In several regions of the country, spotted bass are overlooked by anglers set on catching largemouths or by purists seeking only smallmouths. But in top locations, spots combine the best features of both fish. Indeed, many characteristics are intermediate between largemouths and smallmouths, so much so that ichthyologists regarded the spotted bass as a hybrid or type of smallmouth until the 1930s.

Distribution

The original range of spotted bass included all the lower and central Mississippi River drainage from Missouri and Kansas to Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as the Gulf Coast drainages from the Chattahoochee River in Georgia to the Guadalupe River in Texas. The Ohio River drainage from West Virginia and North Carolina through Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee also was home to northern spotted bass. The species was absent from the lower Mississippi River, possibly due to excessive turbidity, and they don’t enter tidal sections of coastal rivers. The epicenter of spotted bass range seems to be the central Mississippi drainage. Ichthyologist theorize they spread east, south, and west from there.

Alabama spotted bass were brought to California in 1974 and their success there led to stocking in other western states. Today, 24 states contain spotted bass, and they keep getting bigger. Six states set new records in this decade, and California rules with a 10-pound 4-ounce beast from Pine Flat Reservoir.

The Wichita subspecies of spotted bass, feared extinct by some ichthyologists, occurred only in streams of the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma. The Alabama subspecies inhabits the Mobile Bay drainage in Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. The northern subspecies or “Kentucky bass” is most widespread.

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA has led some geneticists to conclude that Alabama spotted bass are a full species, more closely related to redeye bass than to northern spotted bass. A scientific paper published in 2008 dubbed the new species Micropterus henshalli. In any case, they’re a superior gamefish, outgrowing largemouths in shared waters and testing the tackle of bass anglers lucky enough to encounter them.

 

[Walcrabass]

Nice, True to what I have seen also. Didn't mean cows would be anything but cows ...... just looking at percentages of each "type" ( Red, white, Kentucky, Largemouth, etc.

[Old plug]

Tournaments and  all that trash about Large mouth means all the bass fisherman are killing the LMB poulation and returning the kentuckies to the water. In some lakes locale peole ignore the kentucky bass limits period 

[dprice]

Um ? White calves from  black cattle?    I've never seen this ?   Sounds like your  black animals  are crossed with several genetics traits from bad judgement? 

As far as I know spotted bass are completely different     From largemouth 

Sunfish are  different also my friends ?

my advice is those short spots you catch   .... I wouldn't aim that squirt  towards you right now ?

 

10-4 spotted is falsely  compared in this article to largemouth  in same area that are 23 pounds ?

What they are trying to point is they thrive and cross with small mouth and largemouth  those numbers are no longer pure ?

this is how they outnumber the tested  water 

Try to catch a keeper fish with 12 13 inch fish present  

i just don't think this deserves merit here?

 

[MOPanfisher]

Sorry but I didn't follow about half of that.  As for cattle color and  bad judgement whatever man, if you want to talk non purebred cattle that is another topic.  Comparing an animal that you have 100% control over the numbers is a far cry from comparing 2 species in a lake.  I fully understand what walcrabass was trying to say, simply put every spotted bass removed is one less in the lake, and that helps.  Seems right but doesn't always mean it will have an impact on a lake wide population.  As i stated the articles are cut and paste from 3 different locations I gave none of them any props for scientific research, I merely said if I found info on a different strain of spotted bass I would post it, if it's not to your liking, sorry.  As for hybridization sure they happen, look at the mean mouth pics from TR, but they will never be a significant part of the population,  and may or may not be able to reproduce.  I have never seen any studies about hybrid black bass being able to reproduce or not.  Again I will also point out that I am not against a lowering, or complete removal of the MLL for spotted bass, I do occasionally try to point out that keeping a few or a lot even of a species that is out reproducing, out competing and possibly pushing out another species isn't likely to help out the under dog species much, granted it certainly won't hurt them either. 

[dprice]

1 hour ago, MOPanfisher said:

Sorry but I didn't follow about half of that.  As for cattle color and  bad judgement whatever man, if you want to talk non purebred cattle that is another topic.  Comparing an animal that you have 100% control over the numbers is a far cry from comparing 2 species in a lake.  I fully understand what walcrabass was trying to say, simply put every spotted bass removed is one less in the lake, and that helps.  Seems right but doesn't always mean it will have an impact on a lake wide population.  As i stated the articles are cut and paste from 3 different locations I gave none of them any props for scientific research, I merely said if I found info on a different strain of spotted bass I would post it, if it's not to your liking, sorry.  As for hybridization sure they happen, look at the mean mouth pics from TR, but they will never be a significant part of the population,  and may or may not be able to reproduce.  I have never seen any studies about hybrid black bass being able to reproduce or not.  Again I will also point out that I am not against a lowering, or complete removal of the MLL for spotted bass, I do occasionally try to point out that keeping a few or a lot even of a species that is out reproducing, out competing and possibly pushing out another species isn't likely to help out the under dog species much, granted it certainly won't hurt them either. 

You were the one rambling.  About the cattle I how ever pointed  no sense made And a false attribute

i never really intended to make you speechless 

on your next trip catch a spot and hold him real close and tell what he is doing ?  And the bank type you caught him on 

 

 

[MOPanfisher]

I will whisper sweet nothings to the next Spotted bass I catch and expect him to be doing nothing, except maybe wiggling and wanting to be released. 

Walcrabass I am still fully supportive of reducing or eliminating the MLL on spotted bass statewide, I just don't think its going to make much of a difference in the populations.

[dprice]

Sent a pm on what you could do  panfisher