Hole in fish's lip

[Preytorien]

Often after a rowdy fight with an unruly bass, they'll end up with a hole in their lip where the fight literally tore it. 

 

I've even caught bass with pre-existing holes. 

 

Do those ever grow back shut? 

 

[Mike L]

I read somewhere that it does depending on its size but it takes a long time. 

Very long time

 

 

Mike

[J Francho]

Yes, usually in a couple weeks, not a long time.  It's mainly temperature dependent, fish being cold blooded.  I've had some of my larger cichlids get tears from territorial/spawning disputes in my aquariums get similar injuries, or worse sometimes.  In the warm water, two to three weeks, and they're healed.  If it's really bad, the part of the premaxillary process is really damaged (sliding parts behind the lips) It will heal, but not correctly.  Little holes in the flesh part are no problem.  You really have to be ignorant, or do a number on them to leave permanent damage. 

[Ratherbfishing]

It depends on whether they wear a ring in it or not.  Those that do not close pretty quickly.

[FishDewd]

I caught a bass last week that had about the ugliest face I've ever seen on a fish. It must've been caught about 10 times before with all the tears and holes it had around its mouth. It even had an area of scar tissue on one side of it's mouth where there wasn't any of the original color left. Of course, that spot is where I happened to hook it at. So seems like they do heal at some point.

[Glaucus]

21 minutes ago, FishDewd said:

I caught a bass last week that had about the ugliest face I've ever seen on a fish. It must've been caught about 10 times before with all the tears and holes it had around its mouth. It even had an area of scar tissue on one side of it's mouth where there wasn't any of the original color left. Of course, that spot is where I happened to hook it at. So seems like they do heal at some point.

That was actually depressing lol

[Preytorien]

5 hours ago, J Francho said:

Yes, usually in a couple weeks, not a long time.  It's mainly temperature dependent, fish being cold blooded.  I've had some of my larger cichlids get tears from territorial/spawning disputes in my aquariums get similar injuries, or worse sometimes.  In the warm water, two to three weeks, and they're healed.  If it's really bad, the part of the premaxillary process is really damaged (sliding parts behind the lips) It will heal, but not correctly.  Little holes in the flesh part are no problem.  You really have to be ignorant, or do a number on them to leave permanent damage. 

That segwayed into another question, that being if a fish had no lip holes, not considering being hooked in its mouth or foul hooking, does that mean it’s likely to have never been caught?

 

But the likelihood of being hooked elsewhere further complicated my question

[Bluebasser86]

I don't worry so much about the little hook holes as I do the giant holes a culling clip tears in their jaw. I caught a skinny largemouth out of a lake last year with a hole/slit torn in it's bottom jaw so big that a hand sized shad could have escaped through it. Caught a smallmouth last week with holes in each side of it's bottom jaw. I'd like to see pressure cull tabs made mandatory across the board asap to get away from the puncture style. 

[drscholl14]

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I don't worry so much about the little hook holes as I do the giant holes a culling clip tears in their jaw. I caught a skinny largemouth out of a lake last year with a hole/slit torn in it's bottom jaw so big that a hand sized shad could have escaped through it. Caught a smallmouth last week with holes in each side of it's bottom jaw. I'd like to see pressure cull tabs made mandatory across the board asap to get away from the puncture style. 

I agree about not using puncture style.  I just bought the TH Marine Conservation Cull system and look forward to trying it out this year once our lakes finally thaw out.  I've heard good things about it the system.

[Mike L]

4 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I don't worry so much about the little hook holes as I do the giant holes a culling clip tears in their jaw. I caught a skinny largemouth out of a lake last year with a hole/slit torn in it's bottom jaw so big that a hand sized shad could have escaped through it. Caught a smallmouth last week with holes in each side of it's bottom jaw. I'd like to see pressure cull tabs made mandatory across the board asap to get away from the puncture style. 

Totally agree. 

But don't think that will ever happen. 

When B.A.S.S. and FLW start to mandate them for all thier tournament tiers..BASS Nation, BFL, TBF, HS, College (which I think they already do) etc. that would be a great start that may have an effect. 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[mattkenzer]

Agreed .... at the very least, use the large clips that pass under the gill plate.

Glenn (Bass Resource) has a great video on this method.

[TOXIC]

If you want to see depressing....Go to Lake St Clair and Muscamoot Bay about the third week into the spawn.  The fish's mouths look like hamburger.  If we start seeing this when we are up there we will relocate out deep or change locations altogether.  

[J Francho]

13 hours ago, Preytorien said:

That segwayed into another question, that being if a fish had no lip holes, not considering being hooked in its mouth or foul hooking, does that mean it’s likely to have never been caught?

 

But the likelihood of being hooked elsewhere further complicated my question

You can't make any assumption. 

[Paul Roberts]

22 hours ago, J Francho said:

You really have to be ignorant, or do a number on them to leave permanent damage. 

Unfortunately, ignorant seems to be pretty common. In more hard-fished waters, damaged jaws are pretty common. Seems treble hooks are the worst for people to deal with.

[soflabasser]

On 4/25/2018 at 3:26 PM, FishDewd said:

I caught a bass last week that had about the ugliest face I've ever seen on a fish. It must've been caught about 10 times before with all the tears and holes it had around its mouth. It even had an area of scar tissue on one side of it's mouth where there wasn't any of the original color left. Of course, that spot is where I happened to hook it at. So seems like they do heal at some point.

Hopefully that same bass is not filled with soft plastics that it has eaten from discarded soft plastics thrown in the water. This is a big problem in waters that have high pressure and these soft plastics inside the bass intestines can cause the bass to slowy starve.

[FishDewd]

1 minute ago, soflabasser said:

Hopefully that same bass is not filled with soft plastics that it has eaten from discarded soft plastics thrown in the water. This is a big problem in waters that have high pressure and these soft plastics inside the bass intestines can cause the bass to slowy starve.

Well, he seemed pretty healthy overall. I had similar concerns about him. I didn't see anything down the throat or hanging out his pooper, or any kind of bruising around the stomach or anything like that. That scar on his mouth was pretty old looking, so guess we'll have to assume the best for him. Luckily my little trebles were pretty cleanly hooked in and came out fairly easily. I definitely didn't make any tears.

[soflabasser]

10 minutes ago, FishDewd said:

Well, he seemed pretty healthy overall. I had similar concerns about him. I didn't see anything down the throat or hanging out his pooper, or any kind of bruising around the stomach or anything like that. That scar on his mouth was pretty old looking, so guess we'll have to assume the best for him. Luckily my little trebles were pretty cleanly hooked in and came out fairly easily. I definitely didn't make any tears.

I have caught bass with several holes in the mouth like you mentioned, mostly from highly pressured bodies of water.

 

 

[FishDewd]

27 minutes ago, soflabasser said:

I have caught bass with several holes in the mouth like you mentioned, mostly from highly pressured bodies of water.

 

 

This was a pretty pressured state park pond, I bet lots of the fish have been caught more than once. However, this was the first one I've caught there that looked like that. I didn't think much about it until I caught that one.