When fishing in saltwater for my vacation i snagged a black bass on accident. I noticed that his jaw was broken. It was split open. I guess a fisherman was to lasy to unhook the fish and just riped in out of his jaw and cut through the bone. (assuming that was what happend scince I have seen that happen before) well scince it had a brocken jaw and i snagged it in the back i decided to take him out of his pain. Well i just wanted to know what would happen. Would the fish die or would he just swallow small fish with out using his mouth. Or does the jaw reconnect after time?

He was probably doing just fine.  

We have a few fish in our lake that just don't learn.  They are manghled pretty bad and re-healed a few times over.  

Remember, a bass isn't a "chewer".

That got me thinking. I remember hearing years ago bass over a certain size (5lbs I think) shouldn't be held up by the lip only. It can break their jaw. I guess that can't be true because:

Just wondered when I saw the thread subject if it had to do with that rumor.

vertical like in that pic is fine but when you hold only the lower lip and try to turn the bass lengthwise, it puts pressure on all kinds of bad places.

Below is a pic of abelfisher holding a bass horizontally.  If his hand were not under the belly, it would be doing damage.  He is holding it properly in the pic but many people don't support the belly which puts all the weight on the jaw.  Bad news.

A bass that can't close its mouth due to broken cartilage or separated jawbone won't regain the ability and won't be able to crush a large prey to immobilize it then turn it right for swallowing. Unless catching a bream head-on a bream will get away fairly easily, so the bass would be limited to small soft-finned prey (like threadfin) it can swallow upon inhaling. That would limit its growth significantly, put it in danger of not surviving winter. What would happen to it if I caught it? It would be eaten.

Jim

I normally don't keep fish.  Heck, I normally don't even take pics of the fish I catch...but SOMETIMES I gotta kill a few.  Usually it's fish that get a hook in their eye, too deep down in their gullet, or their jaw gets broken.  Those fish end up in the frying pan, provided they are 14inches.  If not, then something else will eat them.