Spotted bass in the Spotlight
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FOR THE RECORD
If such things are possible , spotted bass have long suffered from an inferiority complex , mainly because largemouth and smallmouth bass have always seemed to hog the limelight . But that was before such spotted behemoths as the 10.80-pound fish caught by FLW Tour pro Cody Meyer from California ’ s Bullards Bar Reservoir in December started showing up .
An angler in the eastern part of the country might think of spotted bass as just a hedge against going to a weigh-in without a limit on an otherwise bleak day of fishing for jumbo largemouths . On the West Coast , however , spots win tournaments in eye-popping fashion . And although Meyer ’ s fish was a monster by any reckoning , at least four other spots in the same weight class have been caught from California waters in the last couple of years . Nine-pounders have become fairly commonplace , and 8- pound spots might help win tournaments , but they don ’ t make much of a splash in the state ’ s records book .
The spotted bass story is an interesting one , if not a confusing one . Biologists once recognized two subspecies of spotted bass : the northern ( Kentucky ) spotted bass ( Micropterus punctulatus ) and the Alabama spotted bass ( Micropterus punctulatus henshalli ). Recently , however , DNA analysis was used to determine that the Alabama spotted bass is not a
COLIN
MOORE
Spotted bass in the Spotlight
subspecies at all , but a distinct species – the Alabama bass , or Micropterus henshalli .
The Alabama bass grows larger than the northern spotted bass , but to most anglers , they ’ re collectively referred to simply as spotted bass , as they ’ re not easily distinguishable . In some states where both are present , the two are separated in the records , though usually as separate subspecies .
Confusion has been part of the spotted bass story for nearly 200 years . The northern spotted bass was first described by French naturalist Constantine Rafinesque in 1819 . Ichthyologists that followed , Dr . James Henshall of Book of the Black Bass fame included , thought Rafinesque was actually talking about a smallmouth bass . Thus , the spotted bass was all but ignored until 1927 , when a Michigan ichthyologist , Dr . Carl Hubbs , recognized it as a distinct species of black bass . Originally , Dr . Hubbs referred to it in casual conversation as the “ Kentucky bass ,” believing that the fish was limited to waters of that state .
Boy , was he wrong . Spots naturally inhabit waters of the lower Mississippi River drainage and rivers of the southern Appalachians and Ozarks .
With regard to either species , when – and not so much where – they are caught makes a big difference in weight . For instance , the current Tennessee spotted bass record is 6 pounds , 15 ounces , and was caught from Parksville
Lake by local angler Shane McKee on a mid-March day in 2014 when it was carrying eggs , which added at least a pound to the weight . FLW Tour pro Wesley Strader boated the previous Tennessee record , 6-7 , on July 30 , 2010 when it was spawned out .
Both fish were confirmed to be of the Alabama strain , caught from waters where they weren ’ t supposed to be and aren ’ t welcome by fisheries biologists . The concern is that Alabama bass , which are naturally more aggressive , might gradually replace both native spots and smallmouths in the eastern reservoirs of the Tennessee River and elsewhere . Ultimately , the least they ’ re going to do is spawn a dominant mongrel strain .
Tennessee fisheries biologists also conducted a genetic study of McKee ’ s catch to make sure it wasn ’ t a “ meanmouth bass ,” which is a cross – either naturally or artificially produced – between a smallmouth and a spotted or largemouth bass . Many states don ’ t keep records of meanmouth bass , though the International Game Fish Association does . Here again , the threat of hybridization in otherwise natural fisheries concerns biologists .
California ’ s behemoth “ spotted bass ” are pure bloods . That is , all are of the Alabama strain , the first couple of thousand fingerlings having arrived from Lewis Smith Lake in northern Alabama in 1974 and being stocked in Lake Perris near San Bernardino .
By any name we call the fish , it was the beginning of another beautiful relationship between bass and California waters .
PHOTO BY TIM LITTLE
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FLWFISHING . COM I aprIL 2017