While crappie fishing on RR yesterday caught a 5 pound bass. If the fish was healthy might've been 7 pounds or more. The bass had a massive hole in it's bottom lip. Maybe from a penetrating cull ring or a stringer. Bass' head was huge, and the body extremely elongated, and skinny. From the tail fin up to midway of the fishes body had red splotches. Was this fish sick due to the injury?

That is what fish look like that have spawned in the River Trees. They rub on the forks and branches. It takes some of the slime off and a slight infection takes place. She will be find. If that fish was mine; it would not get a culling ring during a tournament. It would go into the Big fish side.

I caught a 2.5 pounder this morning that had the same bloody red spots from tail to mid-body. I thought that was strange for July.

Bass looks like it's in a battle for its life. Lots of infection and skinny. May be due to trauma from being previously kept. Hopefully it works out of it.

Things like non-penetrating cull clips are a good way to go. Not hurting the slime coat has proven to be very beneficial. The better care we take of the fish the better off we are. Just because you release it alive doesn't mean it will stay that way. Doing things to release it in the best possible condition just makes sense.

Speaking of slime coat. Watching Bass Live, I am amazed at the amount of time the pros just let fish flop on the carpet. Randall Tharp was the worst a couple weeks ago, literally fish flopped around while he positioned his boat away from the bank to hit spot lock.

I am quick to get fish in my hands if boat flipped and unless they are big, they never touch carpet. And if they are big enough to net, they don�t hit the carpet either.

I�m just a little put off by the care most people have for the bass we spend so much time and money on to catch with little regard to the well being of the fish.

I�ve seen him on tv literally throwing every fish he caught into the bottom of his boat when he boat flipped them. They were taking some really hard crashes into the boat and I thought to myself that he could atleast be a little gentler with them but I�m not gonna lose sleep over it.

Could be a few different varieties of virus or bacteria causing the lessons, but they certainly could be the result of handling stress; not necessarily due to poor handling methods either.

Noticed the date you posted this pic. It was most likely a post spawn fish. Cannot speka to the hole in its lip but it is pretty common to see fish in that condition in April & May, red splotches and all.

Looks like a carpet problem to me Ken.

Perhaps Mr. Tharp doesn't know that in addition to all of us watching his angling we are also now watching his fish landing behavior due to the MLF format that penalizes those kind of stupid moves.

And perhaps his sponsors may realize that he is not the kind of angler that they would want to continue to support with his attitude towards "good" fish handling, of which he has none.

Not meaning to steal this post but it is what the poster is referring too?

They are just fish. It's no big deal

Pretty common post spawner. The hole in the lip not a big deal in my opinion as long as it isn't in the top lip and torn out.

This fish doesn't look good at all....

1) Those red blotches are not caused by spawning. The water temps in July are way too high for spawning conditions. Those are sores caused by lack of oxygenated water. I bet that fish was caught in shoulder or arm of a cove where the wind doesn't seem to push as much. I've seen the same red blotches on fish in smaller bodies of water and in my own koi pond when the oxygen levels were not optimized.

2) The hole in the bottom lip, depending on size, could impact the fishes ability to breath correctly and eat sufficiently.

3) I have a feeling this fish may soon become turtle food.

She has potential to revive, given the right conditions.

This thread is over a year old, I think it's a little late to worry too much about it.
Now, BCbasscat, on the other hand, could use some prayers. If you think that bass is ugly you should see the guy holding it.

^^^^^ Reported