At this ox bow near my

house last night I pulled in a 2-11 off a fallen tree and it’s tail was still bloody. Two weeks ago me and the father n law pulled in several bass there with bloody tails. Really stumped us both finding late July fish in the southeast with bloody tails. The lake is fed from the Mississippi River. Any thoughts on why they might have made beds so late? If it flooded really bad during the normal spawn would they have tried again?

41 minutes ago, StephenM said:

At this ox bow near my

house last night I pulled in a 2-11 off a fallen tree and it’s tail was still bloody. Two weeks ago me and the father n law pulled in several bass there with bloody tails. Really stumped us both finding late July fish in the southeast with bloody tails. The lake is fed from the Mississippi River. Any thoughts on why they might have made beds so late? If it flooded really bad during the normal spawn would they have tried again?

I'm far from an expert on spawning but I always thought they would spawn regardless as long as water temp and length of day were correct. Case in point my local ponds border a river and we had terrible flooding the two previous spawns but the fish still got it done. I'm in northern Iowa so our spawn is later than yours in the southeast normally anyhow and I've never seen indication of spawn in late July that I can remember.

Maybe the dissolved oxygen content is so low the bass are hugging the bottom ,  rubbing their tails when they move .The ox bows I'm familiar with are pretty shallow .

12 hours ago, scaleface said:

Maybe the dissolved oxygen content is so low the bass are hugging the bottom ,  rubbing their tails when they move .The ox bows I'm familiar with are pretty shallow .

This particular ox bow has some deep parts up to 22ft or so, lots of areas around 10ft also. But that is a good idea. There also is a lot of Asian carp, drum, and alligator gar in this lake. Maybe they are hogging all the good deeper places. 

At the lake I fish typically spawn in late Feb/early March and then again around mid to late July. The second spawn on average is smaller fish than the ones that spawned earlier.

I was on the river yesterday (north west Indiana) and I saw bluegills on beds.

The fish in Henry Hagg out in Oregon are known to spawn a second time in the late summer/fall, could be the same thing in your case.

14 hours ago, MGF said:

I was on the river yesterday (north west Indiana) and I saw bluegills on beds.

Bluegills will spawn multiple times a year.

 

They've probably just been living really shallow and their tails are rubbing on the bottom and cover they're holding on.

On 8/5/2020 at 9:44 PM, StephenM said:

At this ox bow near my

house last night I pulled in a 2-11 off a fallen tree and it’s tail was still bloody. Two weeks ago me and the father n law pulled in several bass there with bloody tails. Really stumped us both finding late July fish in the southeast with bloody tails. The lake is fed from the Mississippi River. Any thoughts on why they might have made beds so late? If it flooded really bad during the normal spawn would they have tried again?

Probably injured when the tree fell on it. ? JK. If the oxbow flooded recently, that could explain them holding very tight to some cover. I've always wondered how fish hold on in very strong currents. My friends have a small pond that routinely overflows the entire dam, yet they maintain a healthy population of good size bass. The overflowing probably helps with that.

 

The water temp is pretty warm. Could be there's some parasite or bacteria affecting them. All kinds of nasty things thrive in warm water.

 

A buddy of mine told me he caught some crappie that had eggs last week. It's very warm here and so is the water temp. We're in the stable dog days pattern. On this body of water, we have never observed the typical crappie spawn, where they come shallow in spring to get frisky. Maybe the bass do it differently there.

I know time of year and day length have a lot to do with it but cold Mississippi River water may have an effect also.   Could also be the type of cover they are around also? 

Bloody tails do not always indicate spawning activity. 

 

A lot of the time it's just a side effect of an older wounded tail (probably from spawning) that never gets a chance to heal up 100%, especially if they are living/hanging out on hard bottom, or constantly rooting around in rocks/wood/shell beds/etc.....kinda like if you scrape your knee on the side walk, and then keep scraping it daily or weekly for a while, it's always going to look raw and not heal 100% until you stop scraping it up. As a human you have a brain that tells you to stop doing the thing that bangs up your knee....bass are not so smart, and the need to eat or what not out ranks any concerns for the health of their tail.

8 minutes ago, ww2farmer said:

the need to eat or what not out ranks any concerns for the health of their tail.

Sounds a lot like me.........

 

Went back Tuesday night and caught a 2lb bass with just the top part of his tail messed up. Kinda think something might have bit the fish. It was a fresh wound. This place definitely picks up after 7:00 on the evenings. Been enjoying it.

2lb bass tails sound like a tasty treat for a pike or maybe a big alligator gar, could be turtle bites too I guess. 

3 minutes ago, Sphynx said:

2lb bass tails sound like a tasty treat for a pike or maybe a big alligator gar, could be turtle bites too I guess. 

There is definitely a healthy alligator gar population, I hooked on a 3ft one in a crankbait that had some nasty teeth. Wondering if there is bigger ones sniping at bass. I caught a little 12” bass that had definitely been in the mouth of a gar