Red Teeth

[Wayne P.]

Paul, none of the other 46 bass had any coloration at all. The lowest water temp was 63.2 in the morning. Also none of the others offered enough resistance to keep me from landing them in less than 10-15 seconds.

[Wayne P.]

Paul I caught this one today and it took me about 30 seconds to land with UL gear. The brightest red I've seen since the water warmed up. The water temp was 65.3

[Paul Roberts]

Would you be willing to play one longer?

[Wayne P.]

Yes Paul, I'll do that later this week if I hook one that offers enough resistance.

[Wayne P.]

Paul, I caught this one today and if offered quite a lot of resistance and got wrapped up in some stumps. It took several minutes to get unwrapped. It only had a slight pink on it's lips. The rest of the ones I caught had no lip color.

[Paul Roberts]

So how come your have BIG mouths. Very few of mine do lol. That's a big mama, eh?

[Wayne P.]

Yes, Paul. That one was 9 pounds and 1 ounce.

[Paul Roberts]

I've never seen such a beast. A buddy of mine just took one 24". That's a big one here. No weight though. It was a beautiful fish full of eggs he said. Wish I'd seen it.

[Wayne P.]

Paul, I caught a couple more string stretchers today. Both had red teeth with about a 1 minute struggle and water temp being 75 degrees. This one had the most red color:

[hookingem]

Wayne P. what hook do you use for the wacky you fish 1/0 finnese wide gap?

Paul, I caught a couple more string stretchers today. Both had red teeth with about a 1 minute struggle and water temp being 75 degrees. This one had the most red color:

[Paul Roberts]

Interesting. We might be getting somewhere. I caught a few feisty ones today that leapt a few times then wrapped me in cattails and I noted tinges of red. Water was 61F.

What's really needed is a controlled study.

[Wayne P.]

hookingem, I use a Gamakatsu Octopus hook 3/0 #02413  for Trick worms and either a Gamakatsu Octopus 2/0 #02412 or Owner Mosquito 2/0 for finesse worms.

I've tried the Finesse Wide Gap hooks and they cause missed hook sets in sizes less than 4/0. I occasionally use the Weedless Finesse Wide Gap hook in the 5/0 size for wacky rigging Senkos, but the weedless hook I make is much better using a 4/0 Octopus hook.

[Smiths.R]

Went fishing today and caught a nice sized fish...for me anyway.  Anyway, when it came up to the top of the water, I noticed it looked like it had gotten punched in the mouth.  I wish I had taken a picture of it, but it had black spots on its mouth, and one spot where he had a big swollen lip.  Never seen that before, but thought of you guys when I did.

[Paul Roberts]

Bruising from hooks commonly looks like black spots for a short while. There is also a "black blotch" syndrome in bass in some waters. The reasons for that are not understood as yet.

[Wayne P.]

Paul, I caught this one yesterday and it offered quite a bit of resistance on a medium action rod- jumped 4 times and went under the boat twice. Just a hint of pink this time--water temp was 68 degrees.

[Paul Roberts]

I assume that was the only one with some red?

Hey, is that an BPS lipless? Rattle Shad? I just ordered some.

[Wayne P.]

Yes, Paul, the rest I caught were under 5# and 5-10 seconds of resistance is all I get from those.

Yes that is the BPS Rattle Shad. I didn't purchase it though, I retrieved it from a tree limb about 7' above the water. Looks new with no scars. I did throw it some for testing and it has a good wiggle but not as much water resistance as the Red Eye Shad. I won't be buying any since I fish timber a lot and need more leading edge flat surface to work thru limbs without getting hung up. It looks like a good open water bait though.

[rboat]

Great thread. I have seen the red before, but never really thought about it. It sounds like its related to the cold water. I wonder if depth could also be part of the equation. In extreme temps bass seek deep water. I have heard salt water fish change color when brought up from deeper water.

[Bass_Akwards]

Just bass fished with a man who is 74 years old, my friends father from Indiana who's in town visiting.

He's been fishing since he was 7.  He still gets all the fishing magazines and keeps up to date with everything bass fishing.  He's retired and goes fishing on his boat back in Indiana all the time.  Great guy who has more experience bass fishing than anyone I've ever met.

While fishing with him, I caught a couple 16 inch bass that looked nice and healthy but had white teeth/gums.  Then I caught a 20.5 inch monster that was full of eggs.  I noticed she had red teeth.   I showed the basses mouth to my friends grandfather and said "Do you see how her teeth are red?" 

Before I could even ask him "Why do their teeth/gums get red?" he responded with "Yea, that's all hormonal, their gums get red when they're in pre spawn mode."

I found this to be an insanely interesting point of view, true or not.  I should have asked him where he gained that bit of info but I didn't.

[Paul Roberts]

Well...you can expect most pre-spawn bass to have red teeth bc they are in cold water. But the brilliant red of pre-pre-spawn is long gone. Early enough in the season all the bass have it, even little (immature) ones. It's not related to sexual maturity, or the spawn.

Wayne has been following up on an interesting idea put forth by the biologist, Cory Suski -that it is related to the exertion from fighting, much more prominent cold water.

I've caught a few with some red left, and at this point these have been the larger fish -maybe bc it takes longer to subdue them. I thought that if I fought one longer than normal it might turn up more red, so I put a couple back in to fight more, but they don't. They are already tuckered or subdued and swim lazy circles or just turn over and are done.

Keep looking all.

[Bass_Akwards]

Like I said Paul, I JUST fished with the guy.  The water temp was 71 degrees and people,swimming comfortably in it.  Bass are still spawning in 71 degree water, and this girl was fat with eggs so I'm not sure where the bright red teeth came from in this case but it sure wasn't cold water that did it.

[Paul Roberts]

I see. Interesting. My initial thought was cold water and something hormonal. Suski added the exertion possibility.

Looks like it's time for some experiments. Wonder if Suski will pick it up.

[Wayne P.]

Paul, I fished Lake Fork for 5 days just before Memorial Day with the surface water temp ranging from 85 to 91 degrees. Some of the bass caught that I and the guy I was fishing with offered quite a bit of resistance and none of them had any hint of red teeth. All the bass were caught in less  than 10' depths.

The lake I fished yesterday had 84 degree surface temps and some of the 3#-4# class bass I let swim around until they gave up. No red teeth. All of those were caught in less than 10'. I didn't take the time to get a bottom temperature-- I will next week.  Still checking though.

[Wayne P.]

Got another red teeth (actually pink) fish yesterday. The fish was caught in 8' depths with the water temp of 87 on the surface and at 8'. This was the only one of 45 bass that had it though and put up the most resistance to being caught.

[brushhoggin]

Paul, i caught a dink the other day in 90+ degree waters (surface temp), and by dink i mean MAYBE 9 inches. Anyways, of all the other fish i caught that day, this was the only one with red lips. What's interesting was it wasn't just red but bloody. i could literally wipe my thumb over his top lip and have blood on my thumb. and no, it wasn't from having a hook in his mouth cause i hooked him through the thinnest of tissue on the side of his mouth. What do you make of that? what theories does this debunk? if at all? it definitely occurs in the south