Hi SMIJ,

Even as much as new species of bass is big news, the bluegills are more exciting to me than the bass, although I put pretty much the same post on the main board. I would much rather fish for gills than bass.

If I ever get down in that area I would definately like to fish for some of the gills and some of the new species of bass.

The problem is that the only current way to find out if a bass you catch is the new species is to run a DNA test. Not a handy way. Maybe they will make it easier to tell in the future, perhaps if you are fishing in certain sections of the river you can be certain that a bass you catch is the new one. Perhaps they will determine that you can count the number of spines in the dorsal fins, etc., as a practical in the field way of identifying the bass.

At any rate, it is still big news for some of the bass fishermen in the group.

Someone from FOAL who lives down there needs to go catch one and post a picture of the first of the new bass caught on a fly rod since it has been identified as a new species. It would be a feather in the cap to FOAL and the fly fisherman.

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf