Smallmouth or Mean Mouth?

[Seth Clarkson]

I caught this fish at Bull Shoals and posted a short report, but I feel like this Table Rock forum always has good response. I also believe I had seen where someone had asked about a mean mouth before. I was wondering, if this fish was a smallmouth or a mean mouth. It looks different than the handful of smallies that I have caught before. I know they are somewhat uncommon, so wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking a special catch. 

[fozzype]

looks like a regular smallmouth to me

[Quillback]

I'm going to lean towards a mean, but that's a tough one to call.  

[Seth Clarkson]

27 minutes ago, Quillback said:

I'm going to lean towards a mean, but that's a tough one to call.  

What is it you typically look for to tell? I didn't think to feel for a tongue patch, would that have helped? 

[ness]

30 minutes ago, Quillback said:

I'm going to lean towards a mean, but that's a tough one to call.  

Curious what you see that has you leaning?

[Quillback]

57 minutes ago, ness said:

Curious what you see that has you leaning?

That sort of diamond pattern on the lateral line.  

[dblades]

1 hour ago, fozzype said:

looks like a regular smallmouth to me

That's what I thought, but not an expert

 

[Seth Clarkson]

5 minutes ago, Quillback said:

That sort of diamond pattern on the lateral line.  

The lateral line look is what had me questioning it. I haven't caught any smallmouth in the Cedar Creek area before, and the few I had caught on Finley, or Table Rock didn't have much of a pattern at all, they were just a pretty bronze. I had also caught a lot of small spots in that area Saturday, so wasn't expecting a smallmouth. 

[Sprint21fter]

Echo, mean mouth due to the lateral lines down the sides same as a spotted bass.

[Quillback]

Sometimes it's hard to tell from a photo, but when you get one, they do look different than a smallmouth.  But, Seth's fish could be a smallmouth, just hard to tell, but I am leaning mean.  here's some pic of fish I am pretty sure are means.  This one to me looks very similar to Seth's.

 

Some others: