Texas_Rig
08-22-2020, 06:15 PM
I know I’ve brought this topic up before and I’m not sure if we ever figured out the legal regulations on these fish. I fished the Friday night tournament out of Edgar Evans last night. I had a nice 17” meanmouth. I put it in the livewell not exactly knowing the regulations but I’m pretty sure legally you go by the spotted bass regulations. I talked to the gentleman running the tournament before I weighed in and asked what the size limit was. His answer was “it depends on what it looks like”. Huh? He said if it looks like a spot then weigh as a spot and if it looks like a smallmouth then weigh as a smallmouth. Huh? I said it’s a meanmouth it looks like a hybrid of both. He said bring it up here and we’ll look at it. I brought it up to weigh in and everyone agreed it was a meanmouth but it has to be 18”. It had 90% spotted bass characteristics. It was shaped like a spot, felt like a spot, tooth patch, lateral line of a spot. It’s head and back had smallmouth characteristics. I wanted a picture of this fish soo bad but the guy weighing the fish looked at it and threw it back in the water before I could say anything or argue my point. I showed the fish to several people before weighing the fish in and everyone agreed it was a meanmouth. My main question is does anyone on here have any knowledge from TWRA on these fish. I’ve searched the Internet and have found all kinds of contradicting information.