I assume this is a spotted bass. I catch a few of them on the river here in Morgantown. The confusing part is that these fish look nothing like spots I have caught in other bodies of water. They are all pretty tiny, have very red eyes, and typically not a very well defined lateral line. Just looking for others to weigh in on this, maybe this is just a strain of fish that doesn't get big I'm not sure, there is plenty of food in the river they aren't stunted. This guy was about 12" and is by far the biggest out of maybe 30 or so I have caught during my time here.

Very apparent tooth patch

Connected dorsal

I would say your correct in it being a spot, but I agree it does look strange.

Looks like a ky spot to me 

51 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Looks like a ky spot to me 

 

 

Can't be he caught it in West Virginia. Lol!

I will 3rd the spot motion.  Looks like a spot to me.

dose look like a fish we catch often in Kentucky we call them red eyes..

Our spots don't get very big either and they have those bright red eyes pretty often.

Bet you guys will find this hard to believe, but I've caught bass with those same colored eyes out here on the California Delta. My fishing partners and I thought it was odd, that on any given day a couple of fish would have red eyes. And it wasn't the 20th of April either...

Thought a strain from Florida with the red eyes.

I have those same bass in the creek next to my house. They call them red eyes. 

I know here in Kentucky we call them ky bass, which I believe is a spot. The tell tell sign is the tongue, they have a rough patch on them, and by your picture the tongue looks rough.

looks like what ky. people call red eyes. doesn't look like bama  ky. spots 

These guys have over run the Morgantown and Hildebrand pools of the Mon and are all tiny. If you go to other pools they are not as bad but they are definitely messing with the populations of the other bass species.

The spots I catch aren't very big either but that is Spotted Bass. Don't know why the eyes are different colors in different bodies of water. Sounds like an important enough question to avoid work for a while and research!