Small Mouth Bass in South Florida

[BCline]

Fishing yesterday during my lunch hour I only got one bite which turned out to be a 10" small mouth bass.  I did not know we had smallies down here.  I was fishing with two colleagues, both from New Jersey who were absolutely certain what this fish was.  This fish was caught in Deerfield Beach, FL.  Has anyone else caught small mouth bass this far south?  I should have taken a picture but it was about a million degrees outside and was sweating too badly to fool with a camera.

[roadwarrior]

As far as I know, this is the only sub-species smallmouth in Florida:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suwannee_bass

[BCline]

The Suwannee River is a long way from where I fish.  I am kicking myself now for not taking a picture.

[Doelman]

Lived in Palm Beach as a kid, did a lot of fishing, never seen or heard of anyone ever catching a SMB.  With that said, people release all kinds of stuff down there.  My dad once caught a bloody walleye out of lake down there, just bizarre.  

[Dwight Hottle]

It's possible somebody transplanted it down there but smallmouth have never been indigenous to Florida.  

[soflabasser]

There are no native smallmouth bass in South Florida and they can't survive in our warm waters for long even if someone releases them down here from their aquariums. Some people mistake juvenile largemouth bass or warmouths for smallmouth bass but these fish are not smallmouth bass. We do have some bass that somewhat look like smallmouth bass in Northern Florida( shoal bass, spotted bass, suwannee bass ) but these bass are not in South Florida. You will have to drive to Northern Georgia if you want to catch the closest smallmouth bass to South Florida.

[JoePhish]

When I lived down in Palm Beach Country this guy who lived in my condo complex claimed he caught a Smallie out of one of the ponds. Then he showed me the picture which turned out to be of a Warmouth. 

[geo g]

Not happening in south Florida!

[soflabasser]

On 9/4/2017 at 11:19 PM, JoePhish said:

When I lived down in Palm Beach Country this guy who lived in my condo complex claimed he caught a Smallie out of one of the ponds. Then he showed me the picture which turned out to be of a Warmouth. 

There was this guy I met fishing in the Everglades that swore he caught lots of smallmouth bass where we where fishing. I told him there was no smallmouth in South Florida and that he was most likely catching warmouths. Showed him a picture of a warmouth on my phone and he quickly realized he was not catching smallmouth bass in the Everglades.People need to study fish biology more since its a important part of being a well rounded fisherman.

[hawgenvy]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Next time take a photo. Even with a photo, it would be a stretch for a skeptic like me to believe there are smallies (or, say, moose) in the wild in S Florida.