Bass ID

Gorosaurus

Gorosaurus

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May 6, 2011
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Alright, now I spent most of my childhood taking largemouth bass on spin. Never caught a smallmouth that I was a aware of, but I was pretty familiar with the LMB.

I was fishing Clarks Creek last week and tied on a wooly bugger. It was on my first cast (and my first fish on a bugger!) that I pulled up this beaut of a fish.

ClarksBass.png



Personally, I have not heard of LMB in small streams like this. I have hooked into a few smallies, though all under 5 inches. I would typically think this is a SMB (the jaw doesn't reach past the eye), but that dark lateral line is so familiar that I can't make my mind up! Please help me figure out what I've caught.
 
Looks like it could be a spotted bass, but I don't see any markings down the back. Check this link out:

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/pafish/fishhtms/chap22.htm
 
If he is a spotted bass he is a long way from home . I catch LM in small streams all the time but I never seen one like that it looks like mixed between the both :-?
 
Looks nothing like a SM, even the jaw. Definitely a LMB. They do inhabit creeks, and are usually found in the slower current areas.
 

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It's a largemouth.
No spotted bass in this part of PA. LMs are actually pretty common in trout streams and I've seen 'em in Clarks. These trout stream LMs are usually small but sometimes you'll see one over 12 inches.
 
Dear gorosaurus,

Like the others said it's most definitely a largemouth.

The color and the prominence of the lateral line is a function of environment. In a relatively clear but somewhat tannic colored stream like Clarks a LMB will be brighter with a darker lateral line like the one you caught.

In dingier water they will often be almost pale green or a greenish-silver color and the lateral line will be faint. Those fish are often called "greenies" and even "green trout" by avid smallmouth fishermen depending on where the fishermen live.

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
Sticking with the bass ID theme- what's the deal with the red or lack of red around the SM eyes?

Here is one with lots of red and another with nary any red at all.

It is the water, food, genetics?

 

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Dear acristic,

The first one was obviously out late the night before! ;-)

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 

Ba-da-dump! Ha!
 
Thanks for the information, guys! I knew that it looked very largemouth to me, but I could not believe one would be so far up a creek. Now I know!
 
Dear gorosaurus,

Just so you know, I've caught some good sized chain pickerel and even a small tiger muskie at the lower end of the FFO Project on Clarks Creek.

Furthermore, I've seen some truly large, as in easily over 24" and probably more like 30" long elongated fishes of the Pike family swimming in Clarks.

I couldn't get them to bite, but if they had I wouldn't have bothered to do anything but return them from whence the came.

They were just fishes being fishes and as such they are entitled to live their life however they can.

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
Yep, the OP fish is 100% Largemouth. They're not as common as SM in streams and creeks, but they're definitely there, especially in ones that have impoundments with LM in their drainage. My biggest bass out of the Swatara last year was a LM actually.
 
Another quick way to make a positive ID when LMB lack a distinct lateral line and/or are darker than normal in coloration (both of which occur quite a bit) is to check out the position of the extreme rear of the mouth opening. In LMB, the mouth will extend to a point beyond or behind the eye. In SMB, the rear of the mouth will be just about precisely lined up with eye.

You can see this in the pics posted on this thread.
 
Wow Tim, I had no idea that a creek like that could support such substantial fish! I am guessing that you wouldn't bring a muskie rod to a trout creek, so it must have been quite a feat to pull those in!
 
Dear gorosaurus,

The pickerel I've caught went about 18 to 20 inches, the musky on the other hand was just a pup, about 12 inches and built like a hammer handle.

They were all caught on a chartreuse Closuer minnow and they didn't come close to biting the fly off because it was about a size 1/0 fly.

I have no idea where the musky came from but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the pickerel washed out of the reservoir during high water. I caught them all about 3/4's of a mile below the "Sawmill" parking area on Clarks which means they moved a good bit, either down from the dam or up from downstream.

It was also in the tail end of that same pool where I saw the really large pike-like fish that I didn't manage to catch.

Who knows what else in the there?

Regards,

Tim Murphy :)
 
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