Redeye bass are similar in appearance to shoal bass, but live in different areas. Redeye bass are found in the upper Mobile basin and across the Appalachian Mountains to the Savannah basin. Shoal bass are endemic to the Apalachicola basin in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. One characteristic that distinguishes the redeye bass from both the shoal bass and the smallmouth bass is that the redeye bass have white margins on their top and bottom of the tail fin. Redeye bass also have a tooth patch on their tongue.
Shoal bass are different than redeye bass in that shoal bass tend to grow much larger.
Since the official scientific description of the redeye bass by Jim Williams has only recently been published, there are few national listings for redeye bass. Knowledge Pays Living on Sand Mountain, Dennis Woebbeking likes to fish the headwaters of Guntersville Reservoir. On the morning of April 12, he was fishing below the pumping station of Coon Creek Management Area. While having success fishing for bream, he decided to fish some cut bait on another rod for something larger. Soon he was battling a larger fish that he assumed was a catfish or a drum.