Blood on tail

[Randall]

I also have to add that just from observation of thousands upon thousands of bass on beds I have never seen a female do anything as far as building a nest. She will often dart off and come back as she drops eggs which stirs up the bottom but thats it. That's with me doing almost nothing but sightfishing from mid March to early May almost every day for years. Often once I find a big female cruising looking for a nesting site I watch that female off and on until she gos on a bed. Unless it happens at night when I am sleeping it don't happen from what I have seen. I would have seen something by now even if it was a rare case. Also the big bass in the photo had the tail injury before it came on the bed twice. I knew the area where it lived and watched the area for the fish from mid March till April 15 when I caught it. In that time I saw it spawn twice and it had the tail injury the first time I saw it shallow in water around March 15. The injury never looked worse than it did the first time over the period of a month and I never saw it help build the bed. Also the fish stayed suspended shallow where I could see it over 15-20 feet of water most of this time and I could see the fish most calm days and it wasn't living on the bottom where the overloaded truck theory would apply. So after following this fish and it's movements (actually for years until I finally caught it) and seeing thousands of other fish spawn It would be real tough to convince me that spawning causes this on most female fish.

[CODbasser]

while we are on the injury subject...why do big bass like the one in your pics eyes pop out like that?? i have caught a few smallmouth in the 5lb range with eyes like that and have caught one largemouth that weighed 7 1/2 lb with eyes like that..what causes this??

[Randall]

while we are on the injury subject...why do big bass like the one in your pics eyes pop out like that?? i have caught a few smallmouth in the 5lb range with eyes like that and have caught one largemouth that weighed 7 1/2 lb with eyes like that..what causes this??

The eyes in a bass continue to grow after the skull stops growing in older bass so they simply out grow the eye socket and bulge out.

[Paul Roberts]

RoLo Wrote:

From a human perspective, the spawning ritual is a violent event with much ramming and thrashing.

Have I been doing it wrong??

Sorry, couldn't resist. :

[RoLo]

RoLo Wrote:

From a human perspective, the spawning ritual is a violent event with much ramming and thrashing.

Have I been doing it wrong??

Sorry, couldn't resist. :

;D ;D

;D ;D

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

Submitted via email by Tom Young

18 lb 11 oz, lake Casitas, 2/81 on hair jig, pre-spawn about 18' major main lake point.

[WRB]

Submitted via email by Tom Young

18 lb 11 oz, lake Casitas, 2/81 on hair jig, pre-spawn about 18' major main lake point.

LBH, thank you for taking the time to post this photo for me. The reason for posting this photo is to show tail damage, eye size and how to hold large bass. Although this bass had tail damage, it still fought hard, jumped clear of the water twice and was released in good condition.

Tail damage does not occur on all big female bass, only a few have it. I believe they wear the tail during the spawning process and infection can result for a few bass.

In regards to bass with bulging eyes; very few large bass have that condition and could be a result of severe stress or deep water pressure change. Big bass have big eyes that allow them to see prey, however all basses eyes protrude slightly allowing better peripheral vision.

When you catch a bass of a life time, hold it by supporting the fish without damaging the jaw. If you hold a large bass by it's jaw only, the fish can shake and tear the hinge cartilage.

Tom

aka;WRB

[Randall]

Submitted via email by Tom Young

18 lb 11 oz, lake Casitas, 2/81 on hair jig, pre-spawn about 18' major main lake point.

In regards to bass with bulging eyes; very few large bass have that condition and could be a result of severe stress or deep water pressure change.

I have to disagree here also. Most big bass over ten pounds here in the east have big buldging eyes. I have only caught one over eleven pounds that didn't have big eyes. That also may be the only photo of an eighteen pounder I can remember seeing that didn't have big bug eyes. Biologist that have studied bass have documented the fact that the eyes continue to grow once the skull of the bass stops growing so older fish have big buldging eyes. I have also caught some four ,five and six pound males with the same big eye condition but never any smaller. If it was caused by severe stress or deep water pressure change I would have seen at least one small bass by now with the condition.  

[WRB]

Randall, It's OK to disagree. We all base our knowledge on what we are exposed to. I have been fortunate to have caught several hundred bass over 10 lbs during my many years of bass fishing. None that were healthy had bulging eyes and some were caught is water 35 feet deep. It could be another difference between Florida LMB planted into deep water reservoirs and NLMB. The bass that I have witnessed having bulging eyes weighed in at night tournaments were either dead or close to it. Bass caught from water over 50 feet deep, then the bass size wasn't a factor, eyes bulge out like rock cod.

I have also noticed big bass in some aquariums, like BPS, that had bulged eyes and others didn't and the condition didn't seem to slow them down at feeding times.

WRB

[Randall]

Another difference in your experience could be that California bass in general would be faster growing and shorter lived bass on the average. Studies show that bass in warmer waters with mostly a fatty diet (shad, trout, etc.) are shorter lived but faster growing by weight while bass with mostly a diet of bluegill and other sunfish in cooler waters are longer lived and grow to long lengths but don't have the girth that fish in many California lakes would have.

[WRB]

The 18.6 in the photo had a scale removed and aged based on that, which is only an estimate, was 15 years old. The water in our lakes don't get much above 70 degrees and the big bass go deep into cooler water for 90% of the time. Northern bass are known to live up to 23 years in colder climates.

The bottom line is Florida LMB are different bass than northern LMB. The FLMB grows to be a giant over 20 lbs, the NLMB rarely exceeds 15 lbs. These are two different bass and should be fished differently. We can see the difference between smallmouth and largemouth, but it's difficult to see the difference between spotted bass, NLMB and FLMB.

All are bass with different genetics.

WRB

[SaintsFn]

The male makes the initial bed and the larger female often sweeps it out to make it bigger. Remodeling must be in every females genes.

WRB

I guess no matter what species...everything a man does is wrong if it's not her way :

oops...wife coming ...

d**n, y'all got me in trouble

[WRB]

It has taken awhile to get a fishery biologist to reply to this question.

Mike Giusti, California fishery biologist for Diamond Valley lake and other regional lakes states:"The tails are red due to a bacterial infection from the slime coat being removed during the spawning process. They wear the tails when trying to lay their eggs. The contractions to get the eggs out cause them to appear to be enlarging the nest when in fact they are just releasing eggs. Same kind of thing as when salmon spawn".

WRB

[Paul Roberts]

Thanks Tom.

I wonder if this is more apt to happen with larger bass. Since fish eggs do not vary much in size, larger female would carry more eggs, and one would assume would spend more time extruding eggs. Plus, maybe more body mass is more apt to damage the tail.

[WRB]

I would think it has a lot to do with the bottom, bass prefer gravel type bottoms, but will spawn on tree stumps sometimes. It is a random thing where I fish, size doesn't appear to be a factor.

So much for the remodeling the nest, they are just kicking tails!

WRB