Think I may have caught a meanmouth

[MOPanfisher]

Unless it is big enough to fillet its unlikely I will have a pic, even if I catch another one as I leave my phone in the truck when I go there.  People have a tendency to call or text me and I don't like interruptions when I am fishing.  BUT if I catch a keeper I promise to Walcrabass to keep and fillet it.

Assuming that the Meanmouth can reproduce (not sure as most hybrids don't reproduce or not well at least), it would be an interesting graduate study to test DNA on some electroshocked "meanmouth" to see how much of what DNA is actually in them.

[kelley72]

Are you sure it wasn't a goggleye.

[MOPanfisher]

Very sure, gogglers and I are well acquainted.  This is the closest pic I could find, apparently there is no set coloration pattern for meanmouth that I could find.  The jaw may have been a litter smaller on mine but the sun was going down and I didn't have much time to examine it, it was the "magic time" for walleye.

[Johnsfolly]

4 hours ago, lundone said:

There is also a Red eye bass

The red eye bass is a medium to high gradient stream/river fish that is found throughout the mountainous regions of Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Alabama. This species has been now broken up into five species (can find in the Wikipedia link). Again still located in the same range that I mentioned above.  They are smaller fish and do have a white edge to their anal and tail fins along with red eyes (though not evident in the picture) like this one I caught in Georgia. If I had gone upstream from where I caught this bass I would have needed a trout stamp.

It is not likely that a true red eye bass would be found in Missouri or west of the Mississippi river. Now Both smallmouth and spotted bass can have red eyes like the smallmouth pictured below. Some meanmouth bass are hybrids of smallmouth and spotted bass and would likely have red eyes.

3 hours ago, CoolHandFluke said:

I have caught some red eye bass in Shoal Creek near Neosho!

I have also heard some people refer to goggle-eye, rock bass, shadow bass, or Ozark bass as red eye bass. The northern rock bass (like the following) should be common around Pomme and found in Shoal creek.

Ozark Bass would be found in the Whiter river system (James river, Table rock lake, bull shoals, etc.). Shadow bass (like this one) are found mostly in the south eastern MO rivers and lakes and North eastern AR rivers and lakes.

[CoolHandFluke]

Shoal creek Has Smallmouth,Goggle eye, Laregmouth, and spotted bass. I bet what I caught were meanmouth (spotted bass/smallmouth) with red eyes. Love going down there and getting a mess of goggle eye. They are delicious! 

[CoolHandFluke]

Here are a couple of pics of smallmouth I caught with red eyes. Also caught them in Shoal creek. Wish I had pics of the meanmouth . 

[Walcrabass]

 

  Everyone,

    The Red eyes can be caused by a couple of things. Good diet is a large contributor. Lots of oxygen is another. Just like in our bodies the blood that is high in oxygen is red and what is low is more blue. The same for the eyes of a fish. The eye is a window where we can see the effects of high oxygen in the corpuscles of the eye. Which makes them red.

    We need to get Straw Hat involved with this one. The jaw on the fish looks pretty normal, maybe a little short, for a largemouth. A count of the rays on the dorsal fin and a look at it's structure will give a better answer. Also don't see any black spots below the vertical line on the fish.

   Please keep in mind that in nature the "Meanmouth" is a cross between Smallmouth and Kentuckies most often. It is the offspring of these fish that do the most damage in crossbreeding with "All " the other Bass.

  And Yes, I would greatly appreciate it if all of the Legal length Kentuckies were taken home, fileted, and eaten. 10 years from now all of the people still fishing Stockton will be wishing the same. The Tragedy of Table Rock Part 2 is set to happen.

Walcrabass

[MOPanfisher]

Any black bass on Stockton would have to be 15 inches at this point in time, correct? 

[bfishn]

1 hour ago, Walcrabass said:

 

 ...The eye is a window where we can see the effects of high oxygen in the corpuscles of the eye. Which makes them red...

Walcrabass

Sorry, but I have to respectfully call bull pootie on this. You can keep fish in water that's super-saturated with oxygen, even to the point their eyes actually bug out of their heads... but they don't turn red.

The diet thing I can believe. Carotenoids and all that.

[Walcrabass]

bfishn,

 

   You are completely right about the bull pootie and eyes bugging out. I am also completely right about the oxygen. In this case two rights do not make either one wrong. Straw Hat I am waiting for you to make some comments on the Bass in the picture.

Wally