why do some LMB have very prominent teeth?

[Darth-Baiter]

i catch spotted bass that gives me "bass thumb" al the time.  but Tuesday fishing all the LMB had very jagged pronouce teeth.  what gives?  i should have taken a pic.  

[TnRiver46]

Unexplained. Or same reason the wolf little red riding hood was conversing with did

[WRB]

Teeth in the lips? Teeth on the tongue it’s a Spotted Bass.

Lakes where the bass are feeding primarily on fish tend to have longer teeth on their lips, crawdads seem to wear down the teeth more.

Fishing in Mexico the bass for whatever reason had 1/8” or longer lip teeth tearing up your thumb.

Tom

[ironbjorn]

Not sure. However I have noticed when the water is cold or transitioning to fall and winter their teeth are much sharper than during the summer. The cold water makes their lips much stiffer as opposed to the soft squishy summer lips. Maybe it's the same deal?

[Susky River Rat]

Maybe it has to do with what they are eating?  No clue honestly 

[Bird]

First I've heard of this.

Around here a ripped up thumb meant a good day on the water.

[Pat Brown]

This could be a load of bologna, but I've always heard that the really sharp teeth means they're feeding primarily on shad and the smooth lips means they're in the rocks eating crawdads primarily.

 

Totally no basis in reality or science for this...just hearsay.  Makes sense sort of I guess?

[gim]

The bass I catch have no teeth. That is why I grab them by the mouth.

[WVU-SCPA]

I'm guessing it's some type of genetic variance.  I used to fish a golf course that had 4 ponds over a 3 year period.  2 of the ponds we loaded with as many good size bass your heart could desire with your typical bass thumb occurring.

3rd pond I'm guessing had a forage imbalance with very few and skinny fish so I didn't spend much time on it. 

4th pond had a fish kill a few years prior with a high mortality rate.  Vary few large fish, heavily populated with 10"-12" bass.  Those 10"-12" fish had some serious "teeth".  At times felt like pin ****** and would draw blood from just putting slight thumb pressure.

 

Ponds 1-3 didn't have anything similar to this.   I would assume the original bass in all 4 ponds came from the same genetic line, but the fish kill in pond 4 lead to a change in the genetic pool of reproducing bass.  This lead to the bulk of the population of bass exhibiting larger "teeth" in pond 4.

 

Or I'm full of poop and there is some other reason there was a pond full of mini jaws.

[Bankc]

I'm sure it's a mixture of habitat (diet) and genetics, as most things like this are.  I too have noticed that it varies.  But I haven't put any effort into figuring out why.  

 

Part of it could be your thumb too.  If you're catching a lot of bass all of the time, you'll build up callouses, and they won't seem as sharp.  

[einscodek]

Reason I wear thick oversized rubber work gloves on my bass lipping hand.  No more itchy bass-thumb.  In fact its on the shot to the left lol.

[Functional]

timely topic. I typically have to have a really good day to get bass thumb. The two LMB I got over the weekend though were enough to draw blood. Both bass were caught in heavy weeds on a drop off and very rocky just outside the weeds. Cant be sure there were or werent crawfish but with the rocks i'd imagine there had to be. The lake does have them but also a good bluegill and shad population. 

 

I've pulled near 10 spots out of the same lake in a day and hardly any roughed up skin. 

[you]

There are a couple of lakes by me with two largely separate LMB populations: offshore shad-feeders and nearshore swamp residents that likely feed on invertebrates, fry, frogs, lizards, etc more than shad. The offshore fish seem to have much sharper teeth than the nearshore fish.

 

I've always assumed this was a response to diet. Whether it's genetic or not is also a good question. If the trait is primarily hereditary, that would imply that offshore and nearshore fish are not interbreeding randomly, even though they are probably utilizing the same spawning habitat.

 

Could they have different spawning windows or courtship behaviors that keep them reproductively isolated? Cool questions. I'm not up to date on the research.

[casts_by_fly]

On 9/14/2023 at 1:45 PM, Darth-Baiter said:

i catch spotted bass that gives me "bass thumb" al the time.  but Tuesday fishing all the LMB had very jagged pronouce teeth.  what gives?  i should have taken a pic.  

 

the lake back home that I was fishing with my dad is like this.  By far the only lake where I've noticed how prominent the teeth were.  My dad noted it too.  Since this lake was only refilled recently, the fish are only 3 years old.  My suspicion is that over time they will wear down a bit more.  Also, these fish are fish eaters.  The invertebrate population isn't back there yet.  So that might tally with other observations above.  

[Basstermind]

I can't add anything about teeth theories, but I am relieved to know my torn up thumb has an explanation!  I thought I was having some weird reaction to the fish, but did note their "teeth" are quite noticeable and borderline sharp in some cases. 

[TnRiver46]

On 9/18/2023 at 5:27 PM, Basstermind said:

I can't add anything about teeth theories, but I am relieved to know my torn up thumb has an explanation!  I thought I was having some weird reaction to the fish, but did note their "teeth" are quite noticeable and borderline sharp in some cases. 

I get welts from fish teeth, not just the bass thumb. I’m allergic to everything haha. An SMB finned me the other day and my finger doubled in size 

[you]

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

I get welts from fish teeth, not just the bass thumb. I’m allergic to everything haha. An SMB finned me the other day and my finger doubled in size 

 

I wonder how common skin reactions to fish are. I usually wear sun gloves while fishing, and they get pretty slimy after a good day. The day after a good day, the skin on my hands can get irritated and start peeling. This only started a year ago (after about three decades of fishing). I'd ditch the gloves, but they still beat reapplying sunscreen 10 times.

 

I get small welts from fin pokes, too, more so from saltwater species.

[galyonj]

I hope I get bass thumb one day.

[J Francho]

Could water chemistry also play a part?

[Happybeerbuzz]

Vampire bass.  It's the only possible explanation. 

 

[FishTax]

I got tore up pretty good on Monday on only 3. One of them almost drew blood with his upper lip while I was removing the lure. I have no idea what causes it but it definitely seems like it fluctuates during the year at my home lake. 

[stratos4me]

Baitfish diet=sharp teeth

Crawfish diet=dull teeth

[Zcoker]

From what I understand, the tiny teeth are hard to see unless you are specifically looking for them. I haven't ran into any teeth issues where I fish, more like rough sandpaper issues. If I don't wear fishing gloves, I'll eventually get bass rash because of the sheer number of fish caught.