What Kind of Bass Are These?

[Bluegillslayer]

12 hours ago, Kenny Yi said:

Striper actually... the stripe on the side proves it

Wrong, actually its the rare and elusive green bucketmouth snapper commonly found in creeks in southwestern Pennsylvania. 

[goosejetski]

7 hours ago, WRB said:

The top photo looks more like a NLMB after looking at it closely, the fins, no scales and broken lateral line. Can’t tell were the jaw vs eye is.

The small bass in the lower photo isn’t as easy, it appears to have fin scales and solid unbroken lateral line. It’s a juvenile bass so not clearly defined. 

The op can clear things up if he noticed the dorsal fin being separated or not.  Teeth on the tongue is common in Spots, rare in LMB and we have no Idea with these photos.

Tom

PS, Caution LMB In Mexico tend to have sharp teeth!

 

I am not sure about the dorsal fin as I was not thinking about which kind of bass they were at the time. My thoughts are that they are some sort of local type of large mouth that are maybe more "creek" living but im not sure.

17 hours ago, soflabasser said:

The fish you are holding in your hands is a Northern strain largemouth bass.

sounds reasonable

[Bankc]

Could be a hybrid.  Unlike smallmouth and largemouth, which rarely hybridize in the wild, spotted bass and largemouth hybridize fairly regularly, from what I understand.  Much like Florida and Northern Largemouth, which at one time were considered different strains of the same species, but now are generally considered two distinct species.  

 

On my local lakes, it can be hard to tell.  Many, if not most, black bass seem to be hybrids, and have a few features of both, none of them very distinct.  Maybe one in three are distinct enough to make a fairly definitive identification.  But I bet with DNA analysis, you'd probably find out that even fewer than that are genetically pure.  

[Spankey]

22 hours ago, goosejetski said:

Was fishing a small creek in southwestern Pennsylvania and caught a couple of these little bass. However, I can not tell what kind of bass they are. Anyone here think they know? My first guess was largemouth but their lateral lines are well defined and their jaws did not seem as big.

Did you catch them stream fishing for trout?

 

Over here in the S.E. corner small LM and Smallies are common to pick up. Water is getting warmer so that bite should start to pick up. I caught a 9” Smallie on Sunday morning fly fishing a streamer. Streamers and bead headed nymphs have been working half decent. 

[TnRiver46]

member @GreenPig has clearly displayed the difference in a spot and a largemouth and he didn’t even mean to. Top fish spot, bottom fish largemouth. Look very closely at the area between the lateral line and the belly of the fish. That’s probably the best identifying characteristic for the two species. A spot will have several rows of spots/stippling where largemouth usually have random slashes. 
 

pretty kind gesture for a Georgia fan.....

[fishingtx]

21 hours ago, bass4life.... said:

either a spot or a very pretty creek LM

correction look at the lateral line definitely LM

[Smells like fish]

I know those two well! That’s Ned Rig Johnson and Gulp Minnow Jones! Has anybody guessed catfish?

[WRB]

4 hours ago, goosejetski said:

I am not sure about the dorsal fin as I was not thinking about which kind of bass they were at the time. My thoughts are that they are some sort of local type of large mouth that are maybe more "creek" living but im not sure.

sounds reasonable

Now you know what to look for to identify the bass you catch.

Tom

[TriStateBassin106]

Baby Largemouth, I fish a creek for trout and the Largemouth in there look identical to OPs pictures, people mistake baby Largemouth for spotted bass because of how vibrant the black and the lateral line is. 

 

Overall pretty fish. 

 

[CrankFate]

5 hours ago, Smells like fish said:

I know those two well! That’s Ned Rig Johnson and Gulp Minnow Jones!

And here everyone’s worried about color. The fish can recognize each other just by looking at each other..... recognizing other humans is waaaay easier.

[Columbia Craw]

Score able in an MLF event

[goosejetski]

On 5/13/2021 at 9:43 AM, Spankey said:

Did you catch them stream fishing for trout?

 

Over here in the S.E. corner small LM and Smallies are common to pick up. Water is getting warmer so that bite should start to pick up. I caught a 9” Smallie on Sunday morning fly fishing a streamer. Streamers and bead headed nymphs have been working half decent. 

That’s awesome