Let's test your bass identifying skills.....is this a Spot or a Largemouth?

I'm going to have to go with spotted. Spots below the lateral line and smaller mouth than a true LM. If it is a spot it's a very nice one. Either way beautiful fish.  

Good idea. I'll guess spot, judging by his mouth.

Well, broken lateral line and stripes on the belly would lead you to think spot.  Hard to tell from the pic if the jaw exends past the eye to be sure.  

HUGE spot!!  Congrats, thats what we like to see.

largemouth.  nice one too.

A nice looking Largmouth.  

Oooohh! Controversy!! Now y'all got me wondering. :-?

Do spots and largemouths interbreed? I should know this, I am a biology major. :-[

Largemouth. Doesn't look like the jaw line exceeds the eye. Beautiful fish though!

Largemouth

Or if it is a spot, I do believe you have the state record

Largemouth. Doesn't look like the jaw line exceeds the eye. Beautiful fish though!

on a large mouth the jaw line does exceed the eye(its too hard to tell when the mouth is open anyhow), oh and i say its a spot due to the dorsal fin being seperated (on a LM its connected)...The only true way to know (by the law man) is if the jawline meets or exceeds the eye...and we cant see that, and yes i believe they do interbreed.

largemouth.  nice one too.

x2

Im thinking spot

Largemouth

Or if it is a spot, I do believe you have the state record

X2

had a huge debate over a fish in one of our club tourny's last year over this.  The fish ended up being disqualified as a short LM but had all the characteristics of a spot, spot on tongue, seperated fins, lateral line markings but they went by the jaw being even with the eye and determined it was a LM.   And they do crossbreed, the lake where this one was caugh are promoting taking all spots and have a 12" size limit on them.

I'll tell you exactly what it is.

It's bigger than anything I've caught this year, that's what it is. :'( :'( :'(

I say it's a football largemouth.

It's a Spot. But to really know your going to have to tell us if there was a patch of teeth on the tongue. This is the distinguishing feature between the spot and largemouth without killing it...or if you killed it did you get a chance to look at the pyloric caeca?

It's just an 'ol largemouth....but dangit, it looked just like a magnum spot. There were no teeth on the tongue, I checked twice. I thought for a minute that I had the Va state record spot on my line. Oh well.  

I KNEW it! lol

Around here the tournaments judge spot or not by the jaw.  I thought tooth patch on the tongue was a good ID but they say it's not due to cross breeding.  At any rate, really nice catch!!!

Around here the tournaments judge spot or not by the jaw. I thought tooth patch on the tongue was a good ID but they say it's not due to cross breeding. At any rate, really nice catch!!!

that's exactly what i was told. the only legal way to tell is the jawline like i said before, some spots don't have the patch on their tounge. but yeah that's a toad fish, congrats!

Looks like a spot to me. BaitMS called it however. If you want to really know, look for a patch of teeth on its tounge or where it's jawline ends. Those are the only real ways to know as they can look a lot alike color wise to any of us . Some have more pronounced rows of spots that make them easier to ID but this one is so big (awesome fish by the way) that I'd think LM too just based on size alone.  Confirm by looking at and in its mouth.  Jawline and teeth on the tounge.

So tell us, what was it?

The tongue patch is not a diagnostic characteristic for spotted bass.  Small numbers of both largemouth and smallmouth can have the tooth patch on the tongue.

BTW, what's the record spot for that body of water?