Mean Mouth Bass of Lake Ouachita

Say hello to the Mean Mouth Bass of Lake Ouachita.

What is a Mean Mouth bass you ask?

According to Brett Hobbs Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Fisheries Biologist the Mean Mouth is a cross (naturally occurring hybridization in Ouachita) between a smallmouth and spotted bass.

The Mean Mouth Bass name has also been applied to a hybrid between a smallmouth and largemouth bass.

New to Lake Ouachita Maybe, but not really new.
Some Early records show that in 1967 Aquatic ecologist, William F. Childers at the Illinois Natural History Survey produced a hybrid bass (largemouth x smallmouth).
Also in their lab they produced some other oddballs—crosses of largemouth bass with warmouth, green sunfish, and bluegill.

The term “Mean Mouth Bass” was born when Childers observed a school of largemouth / smallmouths hybrids attacking a female swimmer in the hybrid experimental pond. “The bass leaped from the water and struck her on the head and chest possible attracted by her bright colored swim suit". On another occasion, he observed mean mouths attack his dog that ventured into shallow water of the experimental pond.

 Read more In this June 12th, 1977 article of the Reading Eagle newspaper, Reading PA.

Lexington N.C. Dispatch March 14th, 1979

The Largemouth Bass/Smallmouth Bass hybrid is much rarer than the Spotted Bass/Smallmouth bass.
Catching a Mean Mouth Bass is rare.

Today, the name Mean Mouth Bass is more commonly referred to as the offspring of a Smallmouth Bass and a Spotted Bass.

 As far as the Mean-Mouth bass (hybrids of smallmouth and other bass) creel rules in Lake Ouachita, Follow the laws of Smallmouth Bass.

In-Fisherman article by Steve Quinn   |  August 24th, 2012