Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations O.K. you fisheries biologists

Being a tournament fisherman, there have been many a tournament where large mouth, kentuckies, and smallmouth bass count. Most lakes around here have a 15" length limit on lmb and smb. But kentuckies have a 12" length limit...... See the problem? alot of people can't tell the difference between a lmb and a kentucky. I have seen my share of lmb with a rough patch on their tounge, so that one don't work. What exactly are characteristics of a kentucky, that others won't have? Is there one? Is it a couple? Someone on this website can surely give me a perfect explination......

Brad let me take a stab at this one. I've had the opportunity to catch a number of spotted bass in some very popular waters.

There are actually several subspecies of spotted bass and depending on your locale you might have landed all three if your a tournament angler.

Your right about the appearance being similar to the largemouth bass. But immediately after landing one the red flag goes up. "Attention this is not a largemouth."

Besides the apparent mottled belly and the broken blotches near the midline of the body. The spotted bass has scales on the base portion of the second dorsal fin and its first and second dorsal fin are visibly connected. I've also noticed the upper jaw does not extend past the eye. This has been widely reported as one of the better ways to tell them apart from LMB. Observation above the lateral line shows a number of dark markings, and below the lateral line the scales have dark bases blended with small spots.

And, those small spots below the lateral line are usually lined up in rows.