So I am fairly new to bass fishing, and was at local pond tonight I hit frequently trying to improve my crankbait game ( I have been using mainly plastics). When finally after about an hour of throwing a crankbait I finally got hit. I get him up and land him and after I remove the lure I notice a really odd and nasty looking growth on his lip. I went to see if I could move it with my finger to see if maybe I could lightly pick it off, but it was on his lip pretty good. I thought about maybe trying a little harder to get it off, but then thought that after I get it off it might bleed, or get infected and what not so I decided to just leave it alone. I have fished this pond a lot over the last 6 months with a lot of fish caught and have never seen another fish with this on it. Does anyone know what it is? Should I have messed with it and tried to remove it?

 

Edit: After thinking about it some I think this fish might just be a lady of the evening and it has contracted the herp. Time to wash my hands!

I don't know, but it sure looks nasty!

 

-Kevin

Ew!

I'm not a fish biologist but it looks to me like this bass has been promiscuous. 

Ewwww...you touched it?! You better go see a doctor! Last time I saw a guy touch a growth lIke that, he turned out like this

In all seriousness, I've seen growths(tumors) like this on bass, my guess, cancerous tumor probably from an earlier injury.

Likely could be a healing scar from being caught before. 

I've seen them like this too. I'm thinking it's just a scar but I could be wrong. Either way I don't kiss those ones lol

To much dip...

Jimmy Houston needs to quit spreading that stuff.

Like someone mentioned already. The fish has been caught before and the wound is healing. Very common. 

Its a fish disease, which, i dont have a clue.

Ive caught one fish like this, and it had 4 of these things, scales falling off, just looked extremely sickly.

Couldnt tell you what it is, but it reminds me of long exposure to small amounts of radiation.