South East Mutant bass!

[Stormtrooper]

I all. So I ventured over to the East coast on Tuesday night hoping for a ray but with bass a consideration too.
I got set up and obviously the whiting were out in force so I attempted a live bait rig on one of the rods for a while, I find it really hard not to react to the quivering tip of a successfully hooked whiting!!
As the tide made its way up, I switched the live bait to a whole squid and plopped it in the gutter in front of me. Straight away it rattled and looked very much like the whiting were at my feet too but then it lunged over with a little more purpose. I decided to take a gander and as I wound down, I could feel a spirited tussle... could it be?... yes! The shining silver of a flapping bass emerged from the surf and up the shingle to my feet. No monster by any standards but target acquired nonetheless, after a couple of weeks of just ting in-dispersed with the odd dog, it was a very welcome reprieve.
As I picked it up to unhook it, I was confused as to what was going on and it took me a moment to work it out. The fish had a large split through its lower jaw. The weird thing was though that the two halves had been re-growing, overlapping each other to form a new mouth shape that was more like the Predator than a fish!!
I took a couple of pics but unfortunately they really don’t do it justice as to just how odd it was.
Anyway, the fish went 43cm, about 1.5 - 2lbs. I fished on but the whiting came on with a vengeance and I was picking up 2 a cast even though I was only fishing 1 bait!!
That was my cue to call it a night and I packed up, happy to have found one of my targets at least.

 

[Cfish]

That's weird!!! Hope you knocked it on the head! Looks like catch and release went a bit wrong in it's past.

 

[Tatunka joe]

I all. So I ventured over to the East coast on Tuesday night hoping for a ray but with bass a consideration too.
I got set up and obviously the whiting were out in force so I attempted a live bait rig on one of the rods for a while, I find it really hard not to react to the quivering tip of a successfully hooked whiting!!
As the tide made its way up, I switched the live bait to a whole squid and plopped it in the gutter in front of me. Straight away it rattled and looked very much like the whiting were at my feet too but then it lunged over with a little more purpose. I decided to take a gander and as I wound down, I could feel a spirited tussle... could it be?... yes! The shining silver of a flapping bass emerged from the surf and up the shingle to my feet. No monster by any standards but target acquired nonetheless, after a couple of weeks of just ting in-dispersed with the odd dog, it was a very welcome reprieve.
As I picked it up to unhook it, I was confused as to what was going on and it took me a moment to work it out. The fish had a large split through its lower jaw. The weird thing was though that the two halves had been re-growing, overlapping each other to form a new mouth shape that was more like the Predator than a fish!!
I took a couple of pics but unfortunately they really don’t do it justice as to just how odd it was.
Anyway, the fish went 43cm, about 1.5 - 2lbs. I fished on but the whiting came on with a vengeance and I was picking up 2 a cast even though I was only fishing 1 bait!!
That was my cue to call it a night and I packed up, happy to have found one of my targets at least.View attachment 1453View attachment 1452View attachment 1454View attachment 1455

Wot a weird looking fish target Acquired tho mate So well done ?

 

[Bass&Chips]

Well done getting through the whiting even if just momentarily.

 

[Tournamag]

I all. So I ventured over to the East coast on Tuesday night hoping for a ray but with bass a consideration too.
I got set up and obviously the whiting were out in force so I attempted a live bait rig on one of the rods for a while, I find it really hard not to react to the quivering tip of a successfully hooked whiting!!
As the tide made its way up, I switched the live bait to a whole squid and plopped it in the gutter in front of me. Straight away it rattled and looked very much like the whiting were at my feet too but then it lunged over with a little more purpose. I decided to take a gander and as I wound down, I could feel a spirited tussle... could it be?... yes! The shining silver of a flapping bass emerged from the surf and up the shingle to my feet. No monster by any standards but target acquired nonetheless, after a couple of weeks of just ting in-dispersed with the odd dog, it was a very welcome reprieve.
As I picked it up to unhook it, I was confused as to what was going on and it took me a moment to work it out. The fish had a large split through its lower jaw. The weird thing was though that the two halves had been re-growing, overlapping each other to form a new mouth shape that was more like the Predator than a fish!!
I took a couple of pics but unfortunately they really don’t do it justice as to just how odd it was.
Anyway, the fish went 43cm, about 1.5 - 2lbs. I fished on but the whiting came on with a vengeance and I was picking up 2 a cast even though I was only fishing 1 bait!!
That was my cue to call it a night and I packed up, happy to have found one of my targets at least.View attachment 1453View attachment 1452View attachment 1454View attachment 1455

Might have been attacked by an Itchypod those Cretin things that look like king sized woodlouse heard they eat Bass tongues away and another reason to prevent them stealing Wrasse as they keep numbers down why they want them for toxic Salmon pens

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[Cfish]

Might have been attacked by an Itchypod those Cretin things that look like king sized woodlouse heard they eat Bass tongues away and another reason to prevent them stealing Wrasse as they keep numbers down why they want them for toxic Salmon pens

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Horrible things! Didn't know they could cause so much damage, thought they were like tick's.

 

[richtic]

Great report and pictures, well done getting out and catching ?

 

[CKB]

nice report - i expect its got tangled in a net or line that's broken away and its sort grown with that in a while and torn at it.

 

[Jimmyfloydreturns]

Nice report mate! But I hope you didn’t eat the bass as you may catch whatever it had

 

[flappy]

Angler damage.

 

[Tournamag]

isopods and bass tongues at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

 

[Stormtrooper]

Nice report mate! But I hope you didn’t eat the bass as you may catch whatever it had

View attachment 1461

Nope.... my mate did though ???

 

[Stormtrooper]

Angler damage.

That’s what I thought.

 

[Action Man]

That is gross, also is Jimmyfloyds pic

I caught a bass last autumn on a shallow diving lure and the treble made a right mess of its jaw. I would have normally put it out of its misery but I already had my quota in my backpack.

It does look like yours had some type of previous damage though

Nice to hear they are still sniffing about on that coast, I've heard of a few still falling to lures on the Thanet rock marks!

Well done

 

[Rockhopper]

How odd,yet it still managed to feed...had a couple of cod over the years one with a deformed jaw, another with a section of its tail fin missing....but nothing like your bass....
Well done and a nice report

 

[Shirleycodlin]

Ewwweee, yuck!
The damage of trebles and c&r?