I fish in a local manmade pond thats approx. 11 yrs old.  I went fishing this weekend caught 9 and about 3 or 4 of them had these disturbing red fungus-like looking stuff on the front of their lips.  its almost like a fish herpes.. its quite disgusting.

i do not think that these are damages from eating forage, and the first 2years i fished this lake i NEVER saw anything similar to what i saw the other day.

anyone know of what this can be?

Thanks,

Alex

I think that this question was brought up a couple weeks ago, many said it was due to the cold water! Are the waters you're fishing cold? This could be the reason why!

Im sure someone will be along shortly that can better explain the redness of the lips!

It's very warm down here in south Louisiana.

It's not just redness, they have kinda a pus-like material on the lips.

It could be from infected lips if the bass were caught earlier?  I have no clue I might go look it up later....  But that does sound disturbing, I've never caught a bass that looked like that.  I know bass can get grubs in their flesh if they live in a weedy pond in the summer and that fish that have black specks on them are diseased but i've never heard anything about their lips.  Oh and I heard black patches are on fish that live near a sewage outflow

Could be male bedding bass. I have seen alot males with sores on their lips from digging nests and it could be that the wounds get infected.

Could be male bedding bass. I have seen alot males with sores on their lips from digging nests and it could be that the wounds get infected.

Something I noticed, when I watch my Oscar.  When I increase the temp, it tricks him into thinking it's booty time and the digging begins.  I've seen him fan only twice but I see him "shovel" with his mouth, all day long.  I honestly believe the bulk of the nest is made with the mouth, not the tail, but those are just my observations on 1 fish.

as for plain old RED lips, there are a few theories, none proven yet.

-Eating craws

- From "Rooting" for craws and other edibles

-cold water

-Revlon had a sale on "Ruby Red"

etc ;D

I see this a lot, with the smaller males here also in the spawning and pre spawn period. I always wondered this my self, since i have seen males digging around with their mouths, I would say that is  an obvious cause .

Sound like they are digging nests to me.

makes sense.

thank yall for the quick responses