Caught this bass in a river near my house were the DNR has stocked shoal bass and some unknown entity illegally stocked smallmouth bass. Rumor has it the two species are breeding and creating "smoalies". I honestly have never caught a smallmouth and only recently started fishing for shoal bass, so it would be nice to know which one I just caught. I appreciate any help identifying this fish.

Looks like a normal smallmouth bass to me.

But then again I've never heard of a shoal bass until I just looked them up and it might be one of those due to the striping pattern. I've seen smallies with similar stripes too though.

Looks like a smallie to me too.

Smallmouth

Yea, im told the two are pretty tough to distinguish except for the fact that their natural ranges and environments do not overlap, except for this strange occurrance in the river by my house

Smallie, shoals are green and I thought they have a red eye.

Smallie, shoals are green and I thought they have a red eye.

Lots of smallies have red eyes.

Probably not wise to question the locals expertise, but that really looks like a smallmouth to me.

Smallie. Count the spines on the pectoral fin and caudal fins.

looked like an ordinary smallmouth to me.

Its a Shoal bass, no doubt they look similar but there's differences..

could be a meanmouth....

Not...It's a smallmouth

That is a shoal bass. If you havent caught one before, and seen it in person then they can be mistaken for a smallie.

There are some smallies in the hooch, but very few.

NGaHB

Still looks like a smalljaw to me.

I see this is still being debated, lol Anyway did some researching Shoal bass are green to olive green not brown, they always have the red eye and a spot near the tail and three lateral bars on the cheek.

"The most distinguishing feature of the shoal bass is the dark vertical bars running the length of the body. The red eye is another obvious feature, as well as the round, dark spot that appears toward the base of the tail. Scale color varies from pale olive green, to dark olive green, to even black at times. Three lateral dark bars can be seen on the side of the head across the cheek. " this from this site http://www.sherpagui...eature_feature/ this is a quote from Les Ager, GA Wildlife Resources Division Regional Fisheries Supervisor

Again from the same site "Anatomically, the shoal bass is most like the spotted bass. Differences include the typical absence of a tongue patch, a small spot of teeth that occur in the middle of the tongue, in the shoal bass. (Variances do occur in this one characteristic, as we found during our fishing trip on the Flint. One of the shoals we caught had a tongue patch along with all of the other characteristics indicative of a shoal bass.) Additionally, spotted bass are missing the characteristic dark, vertical bars found on the shoal bass. "

Also read that the fins of a shoal are transparent as you get closer to the edge of the fin. From all that I can find read and see this is a smallmouth.

We shouldn't be suprised with all the differing opinions most of the reading I did on the subject said that even biologist have troulbe. the Shoal although first reported in 1940 was recognized as a separate specie till the 1990's

hope this helps