QUIET_DOLPHIN21

I wasn't aware that when the water freezes down south for all my southern brothers and sisters that fish, that you all have to worry if some of the fish will survive and all yhe extra steps you all have to take to protect your ecosystems and your private ponds! I also wasn't aware your fish grew faster and a little larger! It was a really interesting read. Right on this site here. I believe the article came from Mississippi. So to all my brothers and sisters that aren't used to cold winters or your ponds freezing, if it does here in 2021-2022 stay warm and best of luck! Up where I live in CT we have it freeze THICK every year and the stock and native fish never have a problem. If anything we have more issues in the warmer weather due to some seaweed species that when damaged creates a larger "bloom" which can, will and has choked out the local fish and pond life before killing many many fish. Boaters are supposed to wash and sterilize their rudders, boats, and engines and anything else that touches the water to stop the spread but many sadly do not! Also there are a couple species of already that is an invasive species and if it reaches above a certain temp. It will also create a large almost violent bloom of this algea, killing off native agea, fish and other life due to its mass, what it does is it uses up all of the oxygen suffocating everything else. If a pond gets the 1 type of seaweed like plant and that algea they have to drain the pond and wait for it to all die off then refill and reintroduce wildlife back into the ecosystem. This could be avoided if boaters would be more responsible. So although it's from different reasons and in different seasons ir seems we both have an issue that can harm and kill off our fish and wildlife in our respected areas, BOTH due to lack of oxygen and in your case temperature. And in mine lack of area for the fish. Luckily we both have found some solutions to at least help ease the issue. 1 final thing around here that will kill off fish is a type of algea that will poision fish and amke water toxic and can also make humans sick in the short term and can cause serious cancers in the long haul! I'm not sure if you have it down in the south but I hope you do not! Just thought I would share this after seeing that article and finding it relatable in some ways (issues with it harming the fish and other life and property and our workarounds) yet so different in others ( it's in summer instead of winter and even though some of the issues in both places are caused by plants and algea using up the oxygen the fish need to survive [the cold down there and the blooms up here] anywyas stay warm down there guys and gals and may your ponds lakes and rivers all stay liquid while we go through the coldest part of the winter! And hopefully when it warms up and everything thaws and it gets hot again may the blooms stay dead and may the boaters (please ?? clean ur dang boats between different waters!!) And happy fishing! ?

Just noticed this was from 2018 lol sorry. New to the site. Didn't see any reply though so this could potentially help somebody in the near future come next fishing season, or if you never got an answer for that question you will know now! so might not be a completely wasted reply lol.

They tend to grow teeth or teeth like things when they eat softer prey items.if they eat more hard food like crayfish they don't need them but if they eat small baptism, frogs and mice that cross Lilly pads they grow the teeth which works almost like velcro to grip the prey so it can't escape and if they only eat soft food from a younge age they can sometimes actually grow their bristle things into harder almost actual tooth like spikes. I've caught 1 or 2 like this and In this rare case it can actually perpetrate skin and hurt pretty good. Normally though they're just really rough and will give u bass thumb faster like striper bass in salt water. If they have actual teeth like a pike you may possibly be getting walleye and mistaken it for a bass maybe? But that's why some have small to medium teeth ir really hard and large bristle things. Also it's more common on small mouth(fresh water), calico (fresh water) and striper(salt water) bass vs a large mouth(fresh water)