Caught this fish today on a Megastrike Stickbait. Fish may have gone 2#.

Thought I had a Spotted bass Judging from the size of its mouth. The fish had a serious underbite like "Bubba" from Forrest Gump. Fish was released unharmed.What could have caused this deformity of its upper jaw?

In breeding???   

wow that's pretty crazy looking

What could have caused this deformity of its upper jaw?

Previous hooking.

I was gonna say lip damage caused it to heal that way is my guess. He was injured in some way when it was little, and my guess would be some hook or perhaps it was natural, but damage for sure.

Genetic mutation, the bottom jaw is obviously longer than it should be and the top is shorter than it should be. Things like this happen all the time in the Animal Kingdom, they just usually don't survive long enough for us to observe them......... 8-)

probably from someone holding the fish horizontally by the lower jaw and straining the fish.   :