Something Still In It's Mouth

[LWD]

Hi,

Why do some bass still have food in their mouths after you catch them? I caught one bass it still had a shad in it's mouth, and another still had a secada bug. Are they moving so fast from one food source to the next when they get caught they don't even swallow their food?

Thanks,

LWD

[Jigfishn10]

I'm not trying to be rude or ignorant, but have you ever been hungry enough where you were just shoving food down your throat without fully swalling the last mouthful? We're not talking candle light dinner here.

[RoLo]

I can only speculate Lester, but I believe that any game fish in distress may undergo involuntary regurgitation.

When fishing for bluefish, the floor of my boat was routinely paved with regurgitated anchovies or sand launce.

Back to bass fishing. Right after a bass has been boated, a shiner or shad will commonly be seen floating in the water,

which is a recent capture that's been regurgitated. A baitfish in the mouth of the bass is likely due to 'partial' regurgitation.

Roger

[Jigfishn10]

LesterWD, my apologies, I never looked at how new you were to the site. Welcome to BR!

My reply in my post was not meant to be a wise guy. Bass get hungry and will gorge on everything in sight. If you fished it the time they gorged, you must have had a great day!

[LWD]

Hey thanks RoLo must be regurgitation due to stress from being hooked. Jigfishn10 no problem!

[Sam]

Lester, when bass are feeding they eat as fast as they can in many instances,especiall if they are in competition for food with other bass.

I have found crawfish and baitfish in caught bass' mouths.

Last week on a private lake I lost a big lady bass on a Senko. She had ripped it off my hook. I told my friend to throw his YUM Dinger to the spot and see if she would take it as I was rebaiting my hook.

He caught her and when he brought her into the boat she spit up my Senko.

First time that has ever happened to me other than when redfish fishing in Louisiana and we were catching the redfish that we had missed due to the line breaking. We got our hooks and bobbers back.

Bass will hit your lure to kill it; eat it; or move it away. This is why sometimes you get light strikes and other times they will inhale your bait by spreading their gill plates and sucking in the bait.

Learn how your bait feels with nothing on it. When the bait feels "different" or "heavy" set the hook.

Welcome aboard!!!

[LWD]

Thank you Sam, nice story about the spit up senko.

[bilgerat]

Earlier this week I was in the Poconos on a fishing trip. I had caught a nice 4 lb bass on a white spinnerbait and while removing the hook I saw a crawfish claw sticking out of it's throat. I had never seen anything like that before. I switched to a jig with a Rage Tail craw trailer and the bite turned off. So much for 'match the hatch'. Went back to the spinnerbait and found them again.

Moral of the story...."If it aint broke, don't mess with it"....

[SDoolittle]

I can only speculate Lester, but I believe that any game fish in distress may undergo involuntary regurgitation.

When fishing for bluefish, the floor of my boat was routinely paved with regurgitated anchovies or sand launce.

Back to bass fishing. Right after a bass has been boated, a shiner or shad will commonly be seen floating in the water,

which is a recent capture that's been regurgitated. A baitfish in the mouth of the bass is likely due to 'partial' regurgitation.

Roger

I agree. Over the years, I've found everything from dead baitfish to soft plastics in my livewell. I've always assumed that they were fish barf.

[slonezp]

I have caught fish with plastics in their gullet that I lost on the previous cast. The livewell more often than not has crawfish pieces in it. 2 weeks ago a buddy of mine in my club calls me over to his boat before weigh in. He shows me a 3 pounder with about 3 inches of a bullheads tail sticking out of its gullet. Just think, that bullhead added another 5 or 6 ounces to his total.

[BILLYsobx]

I had a buddy who's 2-3 lber regurged a painted turtle the size of a half dollar its true they eat whatever moves

[PondBoss]

Almost half of the fish I catch, especially when I'm fishing a smaller body of water, have either a tail sticking out of the throat or claws. Bass are hunters opportunity, if they see an easy snack they gobble it up.

[Scorcher214]

The other day, I caught a bass that had a minnow in it's mouth about an inch long. Still intact and looked pretty fresh. When I paddled over to where i caught him to see what drew him to the spot, there were huge schools of those minnows. I kept seeing wakes over there repeatedly and when I casted over there, it must have just done an attack run on the minnows. Was pretty neat to see it in it's mouth.