Mean Mouth Bass 2025
1099gl reply :
anybody ever catch one? they look really cool.
livetofish28 reply :
There was a thread about it a little while ago posted by Nitrofreak. it had a couple pics and stuff in it
tight lines
Andrew
bmlum415 reply :
Yeah I have, they fight a lot harder than spots and smallies IMO
cbass12 reply :
Never caught one but would love to. Here's a picture of the missouri state record (I think) some guy caught during a tournament about ten years ago.
Mr_Scrogg reply :
Id love to catch a big Shoalie as well as a mean mouth!
Munkin reply :
Yes, 10 years ago on Fort Leonard Wood while I was in OBC for the Army. I had no idea what it was until the local Game Warden explained it to me.
Allen
Catch and Grease reply :
On 7/2/2014 at 2:18 AM, cbass12 said:Never caught one but would love to. Here's a picture of the missouri state record (I think) some guy caught during a tournament about ten years ago.
That just looks like a smallie? Can anyone explain the difference, I barely fish for smallies its usually an accident when I catch em.
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 7/3/2014 at 11:44 AM, Catch and Grease said:That just looks like a smallie? Can anyone explain the difference, I barely fish for smallies its usually an accident when I catch em.
See the false lateral line on the side? Smallies don't have that. They're a cross between a smallmouth and a spot so they do look somewhat like a smallmouth.
They happen pretty often in Table Rock Lake. I've only ever caught one there though, on an A rig, about jerked the rod out of my hands when it hit it. The picture is terrible, but you can make out the stripe down the side. I checked with a long time guide that was fishing the other side of the point and he confirmed for me that it was for sure a meanmouth.
Preytorien reply :
I'd never heard of one until this thread.
Are they in Indiana?
Jar11591 reply :
On 7/3/2014 at 10:53 PM, Preytorien said:I'd never heard of one until this thread.
Are they in Indiana?
I think they can potentially be anywhere that LM and SM co-exist.
geo g reply :
Never heard of a mean mouth before, very interesting. How big do they get?
OroBass reply :
We have em in northern california. I have caught em around 9 inches. They can get up to like 12 inches I think. The ones we catch have big mouths.. Big enough to lip em!
OroBass reply :
Woops lol I thought this was the warmouth thread.
deaknh03 reply :
Look up fishchris and check out his avatar..
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 7/8/2014 at 8:44 AM, deaknh03 said:Look up fishchris and check out his avatar..
There was a lot of debate awhile back over whether that fish was a meanmouth like it appears to be, or a smallmouth like FC was calling it. Looks like a meanmouth to me, but without genetic testing we'll never know. If it was a meanmouth it would have blown the world record out of the water. It's a beast no matter what it was though.
roadwarrior reply :
This is my favorite picture of all time!
geo g reply :
Do you know why it got the name mean mouth? I have caught loads of peacock bass in south Florida, now those are mean mouths!
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 7/8/2014 at 9:09 PM, roadwarrior said:This is my favorite picture of all time!
Fish Chris obviously is well known for his abilities with a camera as well as a fishing rod, but the fish in that picture is one of the best looking bass I've ever seen, regardless of what kind it was 
McAlpine reply :
On 7/3/2014 at 10:53 PM, Preytorien said:I'd never heard of one until this thread.
Are they in Indiana?
I've caught them in tributaries of the Ohio, so yeah.
Mattle reply :
I've heard of them being in the Midwest and in table rock but has anyone ever heard of any being in New England?? Im from Maine and I've been curious about any around here. Im finding very little information about them.
eyedabassman reply :
They are not in all lakes.When I was a guide in South East Wisconsin they were not in the lakes that I fished.I moved to Table Rock 3 years ago and I had caught one. They are a cool fish,I think they can get up to 3 to 5 pound range.They are big time mean!
TnRiver46 reply :
We have a lot of them in the Tennessee river, I think someone weighed in a 19lb limit of them in an FLW tournament. I swear I think it was Scott martin
lonnie g reply :
never heard of one either, but very cool pic. would love to hang into one!
Bassguytom reply :
Pretty sure I'd catch a unicorn before I catch one of them around here. Although I did hear rainbow powerbait was also killer for unicorns. Cool fish.
OCdockskipper reply :
On 7/9/2014 at 1:18 AM, geo g said:Do you know why it got the name mean mouth? I have caught loads of peacock bass in south Florida, now those are mean mouths!
Field & Stream did an article about them way back in 1977, they got the name from their aggressiveness - https://books.google.com/books?id=T4yxQAfkKiAC&pg=PA84&lpg=PA84&dq=Field+%26+Stream+Meanmouth&source=bl&ots=ZkfhGR84v8&sig=shn-HCUfrwpgMNFInIYSNr5vncA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjg7yH4aLSAhVT_WMKHRThCQoQ6AEIKzAD#v=onepage&q=Field %26 Stream Meanmouth&f=false
I'm old enough to have read that when it hit the presses .
Dwight Hottle reply :
On 7/8/2014 at 5:56 PM, Bluebasser86 said:There was a lot of debate awhile back over whether that fish was a meanmouth like it appears to be, or a smallmouth like FC was calling it. Looks like a meanmouth to me, but without genetic testing we'll never know. If it was a meanmouth it would have blown the world record out of the water. It's a beast no matter what it was though.
I always thought that Chris said it was a smallmouth. I never believed it because of the coloration & lateral line. It always appeared to green in coloration. It was a beautiful fish.
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 2/22/2017 at 11:51 AM, Dwight Hottle said:I always thought that Chris said it was a smallmouth. I never believed it because of the coloration & lateral line. It always appeared to green in coloration. It was a beautiful fish.
FC always called it a smallmouth. I was like you, never felt like it was all smallmouth, just one of those things not worth debating with someone about because, whatever it was, it was a big, beautiful fish.
MikeWright reply :
My mind just got blown...so there's more than LMB SMB and RB?! Can anyone post some more pics of these "Shoalies and Mean Mouths"??? I don't understand...
MikeWright reply :
Is this a spotted bass?
OCdockskipper reply :
tough to tell definitively from that picture, but I would venture no. The size of the head, the mouth and the overall body shape look largemouth, not spot.
TnRiver46 reply :
On 2/22/2017 at 1:46 PM, MikeWright said:Is this a spotted bass?
That's a largemouth
Here's a meanmouth
TheGreatOne reply :
So it's basically a Smargemouth bass cool.... I've never heard of mean mouth bass before now... wow... but it's a bass so they are cool and theat one looks like it would peel a little drag!!
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 2/24/2017 at 11:41 AM, TheGreatOne said:So it's basically a Smargemouth bass cool.... I've never heard of mean mouth bass before now... wow... but it's a bass so they are cool and theat one looks like it would peel a little drag!!
They're usually spot/smallmouth crosses that I've seen. I don't know how often the largemouth/smallmouth cross happens. I caught one at Table Rock I believe was a largemouth/spot mix that was a really cool looking fish. I caught a pretty smallmouth/spot meanmouth on a Whopper Plopper at Table Rock this fall.
TnRiver46 reply :
I'm pretty sure Largemouth and smallmouth can't hybridize, a meanmouth is a spotted bass/smallmouth hybrid like bluebasser said
fishwizzard reply :
Man, I had no idea these things even existed.
Of course, until last summer I had never heard of a rockbass and was a little worried then I caught what I thought was a pale smallie with glowing red eyes while wading. I was afraid that there was like a chemical spill I was not aware of or something. 
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 2/22/2017 at 1:18 PM, MikeWright said:My mind just got blown...so there's more than LMB SMB and RB?! Can anyone post some more pics of these "Shoalies and Mean Mouths"??? I don't understand...
There's way more than just 3 kinds of Black Bass. According to Wikipedia, there's at least 14 different subspecies, and it doesn't list the Meanmouth as a subspecies, which I know it is since there's records kept for them.
RMax reply :
On 2/22/2017 at 1:18 PM, MikeWright said:My mind just got blown...so there's more than LMB SMB and RB?! Can anyone post some more pics of these "Shoalies and Mean Mouths"??? I don't understand...
There are also Guadalupe bass, Suwanee bass, red-eyed bass...
J Francho reply :
On 2/26/2017 at 5:48 AM, TnRiver46 said:I'm pretty sure Largemouth and smallmouth can't hybridize, a meanmouth is a spotted bass/smallmouth hybrid like bluebasser said
Actually, the term "meanmouth" was coined to describe a smallmouth x largemouth cross.
http://www.in-fisherman.com/bass/hybrid-black-bass/
Quotefertilizing largemouth eggs with smallmouth sperm produced viable offspring that reproduced among themselves and with both parental species.
So, they probably won't hybridize naturally, but it has been done in a lab.
Team9nine reply :
In-Fish link above has the right info. Originally a larger-smallie cross, but has become a widespread term covering several crosses now, most commonly the smallie-spotted one mentioned. That is typically the one you see in pictures from the Ozarks.
While most people speculate based on looks as to whether a fish is a meanmouth or not, the only true way to tell is by genetic testing. This is due to the variation in morphology of basses normally seen in nature across a range of habitats.
-T9
J Francho reply :
On 2/28/2017 at 12:31 AM, Team9nine said:morphology
You used one of my favorite vocab words!
Yeajray231 reply :
Can this happen with crappie and LM bass ?
Team9nine reply :
On 2/28/2017 at 12:39 AM, J Francho said:
You used one of my favorite vocab words!
Glenn hasn't added that one yet to the list of words needing to be filtered out
Morphology - morphology - morphology!!!
On 2/28/2017 at 1:08 AM, Yeajray231 said:Can this happen with crappie and LM bass ?
I've never heard of them crossing before. Usually have to be very close on the family tree so to speak...nearly the same twig So black and white crappie might hybridize, but neither would likely cross with say bluegill or bass which are in the same family.
Yeajray231 reply :
Reason I ask is because I see pictures like this floating around the net..I understand how easy it is to make fradulent pictures... And also have them look very convincing..
This one looks like a black crappie and LM mixed ..
Like I said.. easily faked.
Interesting nonetheless.
The tree comparison makes sense to me.
J Francho reply :
That's a terrible photochop job.
Yeajray231 reply :
Umm.. I worked hard on that.
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 2/28/2017 at 2:25 AM, Yeajray231 said:Reason I ask is because I see pictures like this floating around the net..I understand how easy it is to make fradulent pictures... And also have them look very convincing..
This one looks like a black crappie and LM mixed ..
Like I said.. easily faked.
Interesting nonetheless.
The tree comparison makes sense to me.
Since it's not the actual fish, I'm going to guess that the taxidermist just did a poor job with that mount. The shape, body, and head are all right for a big crappie, just the color is bad. Possible it came from a lake with very dark water that caused it to lose some of it's distinct coloration? I'd be shocked if a bass/crappie hybrid could happen without a lot of human intervention, and even then it might not be possible.
TheGreatOne reply :
On 2/22/2017 at 1:46 PM, MikeWright said:Is this a spotted bass?
That looks like a largemouth to me buddy
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