I'm sure I'm about to ruffle someone's feathers with this LOL but If there is no size limit on spotted bass in texas, why not allow slot size spots to be weighed in slot lake tournaments such as fork? I know a 16"+ spotted bass is not a common occurrence in texas but it could be something to add a little more interest if a person could get on a good spot bite. I can not recall ever personally ever catching a spot at fork but a friend recently mentioned that he caught a large spot during one of the big bass tournaments so this is why the thought came to mind.

The main reason is the spots can cross bred with LMB and the only true way to determine if it is spot is to do tissue sample.

That is why the larger tournaments don't allow spots of any size to be weighed in.

Every tournament has their rules. Arlington bass club if it is a legal fish you can weigh it.

Tyler Bass Club allows spots of any size. State law says they are legal fish so we don't exclude them, either.

But, as was already stated every organization sets its own rules.

I think the main problem is so many folks don't know how to identify a spot. It can be a beating for a TD. Just post a pic of a male largemouth during the spawn and see how many people call it a spot or a largemouth.

It's up to the tournament directors, but in addition to the issues with identifying a spotted bass, there is also misconception regarding the slot limit . I tried to explain to Bob Sealy once that a 18 inch spotted bass was a legal fish. Misconception is that the slot applies to black basses instead of only to large mouth bass.

Our club allows spots 12" and above to be weighed.

Heck, even we can't agree and we look at them all of the time. Just post a few picks and watch.

I think someone might call foul at a big spot brought in on a slot lake and then you're signing up for genetic testing to determine his percentages or calling foul at the TD.

We can weigh in any black above 14" in our club just to avoid confusion.

I'd think that was the main issue too. Even on this forum, you see a lot of disagreement on pictures of bass that look like spots. Even the ones that are CLEARLY spots or largemouth still have a number of people arguing.

Just this year RHBC voted to make it 14" minimum on spots as well. We had been taking any size as TX State Law allowed. We will see how it goes. We have a few members (you know who you are Jack) that are NOT happy about the rules change.

^^^^ This!

IMO its quite easy to tell them apart, pretty sure thats because of how much time I spent on Lake Grapevine which has a decent population of spots. After catching enough of them I can usually tell a spotted bass by how it fights when fishing cranks or traps. The two surefire ways to tell are the coloration and jaw line relative to the eye. One or both of those will always tell the true story.