I went fishing this morning on a nice small 20-25 acre lake and caught some nice 2,3,and 4 lb bass and the 4 pounder smelled either dead or dying now although it was a super healthy fished and swam away with ease unharmed the aroma was terrible and I couldn't figure out why it smelled that way, it hadn't thrown up anything during the battle so I was just stumped as I released her back. Only 1-2 other times in my 4 years of bass fishing have I ever smelled a fish that smelled like that and I'm hoping someone can enlighten me as to why they are smelling like that. None of the other fish today smelled like that so it leads me to believe it's something to do with the particular fish on any given day in any give body of water. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

           -Tight Lines-

Did you hook that bass in the stomach?  If not, I'm guessing it had the crap scared right out of him.