{"id":64651,"date":"2016-06-16T12:10:59","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T12:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpms.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/what-about-the-black-blotches-on-bass\/"},"modified":"2016-06-16T12:10:59","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T12:10:59","slug":"what-about-the-black-blotches-on-bass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/what-about-the-black-blotches-on-bass\/","title":{"rendered":"What about the black blotches on bass?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What about the black blotches on bass?<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

With increasing regularity in recent years, fishermen have caught largemouth bass with black blotches on their heads, bodies or fins.<\/p>\n

Occasionally a fish is caught that is as spotted as a leopard.<\/p>\n

The origin of these black blotches is a mystery to biologists.<\/p>\n

Prior to the 1980s, no one seems to have seen them. The first one the author saw was in a photograph being circulated excitedly by a fellow biologist who worked at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Fish Hatchery. <\/p>\n

None of us had ever seen one before; now they are common.<\/p>\n

The condition, called hyperpigmented melanosis for lack of a better term, naturally raises alarm among some fishermen \u2014 especially older ones \u2014 who remember when bass never had big black spots.<\/p>\n

At first glance, the spots look almost cancerous, like melanoma. But they aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Some fishermen suspect pollution, diseases, parasites and even poor catch-and-release practices that result in stress on the fish.<\/p>\n

But the truth is that no one has been able to document a link between the blotches and any causative agent. The black pigment is only skin deep and seems to have no effect on the fish or the edibility of the fish.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What about the black blotches on bass? With increasing regularity in recent years, fishermen have caught largemouth bass with black blotches on their heads, bodies or fins. Occasionally a fish is caught that is as spotted as a leopard. The origin of these black blotches is a mystery to biologists. Prior to the 1980s, no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[354,454,516],"class_list":["post-64651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bass","tag-bassfirst","tag-outdoorsfirst","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"youtube_video":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outdoorsfirst.com\/bass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}