The Choctaw Bass is very hard to distinguish from other black bass, best methods for identifying the bass is counting the number of scales the fish has, there fin rays are also different from other black bass, and the Choctaw have unique gill rakers, wich are slits inside the gill to stop small particles from gathering from the gills. The Choctaw bass has many similar features to other bass in the same family, only a few small features make it possible to tell the difference. This similar in appearence is one of the reasons why the Choctaw bass has been unnoticed for so long.