Thought this was interesting

[Quillback]

You'd think this would apply to our Ozark impoundments that have smallmouth.

..TWRA proposes that anglers could keep 5 smallmouth bass each day and there would be no minimum length limit – except only 1 smallmouth or spotted bass could exceed 16" long.

 

> TWRA Fisheries Division chief Jason Henegar said...due to hybridization with spotted bass, particularly AL-strain spotted bass, they can no longer manage smallmouth as a species on its own now.

 

> Henegar said in one survey, biologists shocked up fish, visually identified them and then sent those fish for DNA analysis. "In 50% of the cases our visual identifications were wrong. Half of those fish (biologists visually identified as smallmouth) were actually hybrids and that's going to deteriorate even farther as time goes on. You can't manage specifically for smallmouth anymore."

 

[Dutch]

What is TWRA?

[jdmidwest]

Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency I suppose