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Smallie or meanmouth??

Sometimes the stripes are very faint or nonexistent below the lateral line. Lining up the jaw joint with eye and toothpatch are two of the most prevalent traits.
 
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In East Tennessee I've caught many spotted bass that had very faint or no lines below the lateral line.
 
i wouldnt go specifically by tooth patches. lmb and smb sometimes will have toothpatches. they were supposed to take that out of the regs 10 years ago but they added that lmb sometimes have toothpatches and smb often have toothpatches. some folks were keeping undersized smallmouths. when in doubt, treat it like a smallmouth.

i keep a few of spotted bass to eat and i always go by the jawline. past the eye, lmb. back of the eye, spot. middle of the eye, smb. of course if its brown its a smb.
 

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