Redneck boys of MFP...

_John_
_John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
edited November 2024 in Chit-Chat
Got a question. Do the bottom 3 fish on my stringer look like Guadalupe bass? I got these around La Grange, and according to TPWD and all evidence I can find there are/were Guadalupe bass scattered in the lower Colorado, but I've never seen anything definitive.

As you go down the stringer the top one is definitely a largemouth, next a big spotted bass (fish was 3.1 on my digital scale), but the bottom 3 fish have a spot pattern I've not seen in spotted bass I've run across in LA, MS or AL.

Here's a pure Guadalupe bass from the Llano River for comparison sake:

Guadalupe+Bass.jpg

Replies

  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    here's a larger picture of my stringer:

    1z2g3dz.jpg
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    I guess "Hill Country Hippies" might have reached my target audience better...
  • 530roman
    530roman Posts: 1,819 Member
    They certainly look similar. I wish I could offer more, but typically when I see fish, they don't have skin.
  • kodiakke
    kodiakke Posts: 379 Member
    Dang, after all the other titles in threads in this group, I was hoping to see men, not fish. ;)
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    my favorite pitch is a screwball...
  • Timshel_
    Timshel_ Posts: 22,834 Member
    That's cool. Very well looks like a Gaudalupe. The Colorado is really known for smallies though and from what I know they are very similar. The markings look more pronounced than a smallie though. I would definelty take it to local fish and game. They will want to check it for researching logging.
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    edited February 2015
    I sent that pic to TPWD and their guys were just like me: "dang it looks like it, but I just don't know in that section of the river". Most of the DNA evidence got "processed" in peanut oil on those guys.

    Those bass prefer rocky and gravel habitat and much of the lower Colorado (below Lady Bird Lake) is sand/silt bottom, but the river flows through some really pretty limestone bluffs there in La Grange. Most of that section of the river within a mile or so of the public launch under 71 there is rocky.

    The next to bottom bass looks like any I've caught out of the Llano, though at 2.6 lbs would be quite large for a Guadalupe.
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    bumping for more rednecks.
  • kinkyslinky16
    kinkyslinky16 Posts: 1,469 Member
    530roman wrote: »
    They certainly look similar. I wish I could offer more, but typically when I see fish, they don't have skin.

    I'm with this guy.
  • Spnneil06
    Spnneil06 Posts: 18,745 Member
    Where are the pictures of rednecks??
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    I've got a picture of my entire family in crocs if that would help...
  • ilfaith
    ilfaith Posts: 16,769 Member
    Did they taste good?
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    damn right they did...battered in zatarans and fried in peanut oil. We ate them fresh that day too.
  • ilfaith
    ilfaith Posts: 16,769 Member
    Are you asking precisely what fish they are so you can properly log your meal on MFP?
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    edited February 2015
    nah, I was just curious. I hit that spot up when I was in college and wanted some bass to eat. Statewide regs have a 14" minimum on largemouth, but no length restriction on harvest of spotted/Guadalupe bass.

    Sometimes catching 5 14" bass is tough, especially when I'm yaking and too lazy to measure fish.


    The thread was actually posted as a derivative joke that made sense on the boards at the time, but the question is somewhat real. Those fish look a lot different than normal spotted bass to me.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    I am guessing they are. Assuming you are in La Grange, Texas? Searching online, it seems they are pretty common in the Colorado River near La Grange.
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    yeah, I hadn't just googled that in a while and I see this report of a 3.71 lb Guadalupe that has been verified as pure in that same stretch of river I was fishing. If this fish is a guad., ALL mine (save the largemouth) might have been pure guads.

    I think I have to mentally go back and add a new PB to my record bank (I had it as a 2.2 caught out of the Llano).

    potential WR fish:
    townsend_guadalupe-marcos_de_jesus-225x300.jpg
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    I initially thought they were smallmouth but didn't see red in the eyes and not sure if you guys have smallmouths down there.
  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,646 Member
    edited February 2015
    yeah, Hornsby, smallmouth in the hill country is a long story. In the 70's they were stocked in most of the rivers. Unbeknowst to biologists but they behave almost identical to the native/endemic Guadalupe bass, and thus made fertile hybrids. So in most river systems the genetics are muddied all to hell. Largemouth, spotted and smallmouth bass usually have dissimilar enough spawning preferences that they don't make a lot of natural hybrids even though those hybrids are typically fertile.

    Luckily the state had stocked some Guadalupe bass in the South Llano and Nueces that were genetically pure. The state has a big restocking program going to try to drive out the smallmouth genes in the area rivers.

    But if you bass fish the Guadalupe River below Canyon Lake you catch bass that are clearly muddied between guads and smallmouth.

    But stocking of the smallmouth were an utter disaster. IIRC there is a similar story with some of the other lesser known black bass where smallmouth have been introduced (redeye bass and shoal bass mainly).

    I also find it pretty cool that there is a strain of smallmouth native to eastern OK, AR, southern MO that are separated by the Mississippi from the native range of smallies (historically west of the Appalachains and north to Canada to the Hudson bay tributaries and east of the great plains)
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
    _John_ wrote: »
    yeah, Hornsby, smallmouth in the hill country is a long story. In the 70's they were stocked in most of the rivers. Unbeknowst to biologists but they behave almost identical to the native/endemic Guadalupe bass, and thus made fertile hybrids. So in most river systems the genetics are muddied all to hell. Largemouth, spotted and smallmouth bass usually have dissimilar enough spawning preferences that they don't make a lot of natural hybrids even though those hybrids are typically fertile.

    Luckily the state had stocked some in the South Llano and Nueces that were genetically pure. The state has a big restocking program going to try to drive out the smallmouth genes in the area rivers.

    But if you bass fish the Guadalupe River below Canyon Lake you catch bass that are clearly muddied between guads and smallmouth.

    But stocking of the smallmouth were an utter disaster. IIRC there is a similar story with some of the other lesser known black bass where smallmouth have been introduced (redeye bass and shoal bass mainly).

    I also find it pretty cool that there is a strain of smallmouth native to eastern OK, AR, southern MO that are separated by the Mississippi from the native range of smallies (historically west of the Appalachains and north to Canada to the Hudson bay tributaries and east of the great plains)

    Interesting. I will admit, I used to be an avid fisherman when my grandpa was alive. Since then, I haven't really gotten out all that much. Just stick to the small farm ponds and largemouth most of the time. I do have a 4.8lb smallmouth under my belt that I caught in Pennington Creek in Sulphur, OK. That was about 20 years ago these days though.

  • javafate
    javafate Posts: 98 Member
    I almost found a home thrtjdpcsvidfzn.jpg
    ead
This discussion has been closed.

Categories