Black spots in the mouth

[ernel]

Has anybody ever caught a largemouth that has black spots in their mouthes? I have seen fish with markings in the mouth , but this find is a little disturbing.

A fish that I found floating on the top of the water today on Douglas in Tennesee had these spots in it's mouth. The spots were not part of the fishes markings as whenever I lipped him the black stuff on his lips came of on my hand. The stuff was not leeches because it was like a granular feeling and looked like black powder. It also had blood running all the way to it's tail after I gave him a good look over trying to figure out why he ws floating on his side. I figured somebody had pulled him from deep water and didn't know how to depressure hs swim bladder is why I stop to scoop him up.

It appeared to be a healthy fish with plenty of fat reserve left to make it thru the winter. It weighed out right at 2.5 lbs. Probably was about 18 in. long. Gave him a running start head first back into the water and he swam away. I waited about 5 minutes to see if he would float back up but never saw it again.

The water temp was in 39 degrees so I am not sure if a fungus could still survive. So I am wondering if any body else has ever seen this before.

[harpo]

I'm sorry that I can't help you with the unusual spots on the bass but I noticed that you said something about depressurising his swim bladder. I haven't heard of this before and was wondering if this is something I should know about for returning any deep water bass after catching one.

[ernel]

There are two ways to do this.  One method is through the back of the mouth and the other is through the side. Both involve a hypodermic needle. Your best bet is to get a local wildlife officer to instruct you in the proper method. I can explain it, but it is much easier if you can see it being done. You are actually "fizzing" the fish when you decompress the swim bladder. (Bleeding air out of the swim bladder)

It is like when a scuba diver returns to the surface to quickly, we get the benz. (Nitrogen in the blood stream) We have to either go back down and decompress and return to the surface slower, or be rushed to the hospital and placed in a decompression chamber. This also happens to some fish if they are yanked from water depths of more than 40 feet.  (Except it is not nitrogen in the blood, it is the swim bladder becomes over inflated.) Fish extract the gases in the water and actually cycle the oxygen into their swim bladder. You can help prevent this if you fight the fish slowly when fishing deep.

[Nick]

I've not encountered that kind of black mouth problem in many, many years of catching.

[ernel]

This was my first in 19 years of fishing myself. It was very strange.

[Will]

Another way for deflating the air bladder is by dropping the fish down to the depth you caught him from. I am not for sure, but I think you hook up almost a drop shot, but 4 ounces of weights. You then use a small hook with a flattened barb, hooking the fish and lowering him down to the depth you caught him. Within minutes the air bladder will relieve itself and you can shake the fish off.

[Glenn]

Fizzing a bass should always be a last resort - especially if you've never done it before.

That said, here's the first page of several that explain the how's, why's, in's and out's of this technique:

https://www.bassresource.com/fishing/fish1.html

 

[Big_Bass_Rich]

I've encountered the blackness in the mouth of a few bass I caught. And they were all in the same muddy water pond. Perhaps has something to do with pollutants...?

[Chris]

I have caught several within the past 3 years that had black spots on them both in clear and muddy water. I asked a Game Warden one time and he said it could be that the fish was leaning up against something or it could be a fungus.  But i never got a good answer out of him. It almost looked like finger prints so it could be that someone handled the fish and had something on their hands.