THAT'S ONE MEAN SON-OF-A-GUN

We have a lot of nicknames for largemouth and smallmouth bass, but meanmouth should not be one of them. The Meanmouth Bass is a species unto its own, and on 2/22/22 a Texas angler- Brady Stanford- may have set the new record for one- an 11.07 on a certified scale caught at O.H. Ivie Reservoir. If that isn't enough, a Texas angler has just been recognized for catching the current world record for this unique species.

The meanmouth bass is a hybrid species that occurs when a spotted or largemouth bass mates with a smallmouth bass. Smallmouth and Spotted bass frequent similar habitat, sometimes leading to offspring. This is less frequent with Largemouth and Smallmouth as they usually live in separate habitat.

The species was first separately identified by Dr. William Childers and his colleagues at the Illinois Natural History Survey when they began studies on sunfish family hybrids in the mid-1960s. Childers originated the meanmouth name when he observed a school of largemouth/ smallmouth hybrids attacking a female swimmer. He saw the bass leap from the water and strike the woman on the head. He also observed meanmouths attacking a dog that had ventured into shallow water at the same pond. Meanmouths are most frequently found in waters with abundant populations of both smallmouth and spotted bass such as Table Rock Lake in Missouri. Georgia and Missouri are two states that officially report the presence of meanmouth bass.

The current record, a 7-09, was caught in March 2021 by Wyatt Frankens also at O.H. Ivie, and was confirmed by the Texas Department ofT Parks and Wildlife as a smallmouth-largemouth hybrid. This record was recently confirmed by the International Game Fish Association as a world record. The pending record is waiting on genetic confirmation.

O.H. Ivie Reservoir is located on the Colorado and Concho Rivers in Concho, Coleman and Runnel counties, 55 miles east of San Angelo, TX