So I was out crappie fishing on Ray Roberts today and wasn't doing any good so we went beating the banks for bass. Something caught my eye on the graph in an area we don't normally spend much time due to the depth being 30-40 feet deep and until I recently made some incredible box anchors we couldn't anchor to save our lives there but anyways I saw some particularly large fish laid out tight to the bottom so I pitched a marker out as we passed over then dropped an anchor and drifted back over our marker. Much to my surprise and a major strain on my light crappie gear they were LM bass down there. I pulled this guy up and noticed he had a black upper lip. Never saw this before but I don't catch a lot of them so figured I'd ask around to see what was up with it. Also his right eye was pretty glassed over but doubt that's related to the hitler stache it was sporting. Anybody know anything about it or is it normal?

They get black spots now and then. Nothing wrong with them.

There is a pond near me that almost all the bass in have that or other black spots on them.

For a while I thought it might be related to being handled bcs I would see it a lot in the spring on smaller males I know had been caught several times. Not so sure about that anymore.

But yeah that pond, I would say 75% of them have black markings on the lips or the body.

Nothing wrong with the fish. Those black spots are common on bass, so nothing to worry about.

common in the spring. I believe they are hormone related. How this fish got lucky to have his black spot give him a killer stache is to cool. I'll bet he keeps the big girls busy during the spawn.