Was fishing at next door pond today and caught a 2# LMB noticed that it’s mouth looked like it was painted with black.top and bottom was black. Looked like lipstick (lol) unhooked it and put it back in the water. Cast out in the same place and I’ll be darned if I didn’t catch it again! I have never seen that before! Has that happened to anyone else?

Dang it Pat, thought ya was postin about me.

Pat, I have but only when they were on a bed. Weird dark spots and patches seem to only show up around spawning time .See it every year on our southern lakes.

I seen this on many, MANY occasions in LMB when I lived on Texoma. As Flame stated, this seems to be somewhat common in southern waters, I have never seen this in LMB in Kansas. I remember a few on Grand lake o the Cherokees as well..Only pre-spawn to just post-spawn.
I would guess it to be the same mechanism that causes male Crappie to turn black as well..

The color part I can see as a spawning thing, but the catching again in short time?

Yeah, the twice caught part within minutes, I'd say is very uncommon..

Last year while I was fishing with a friend for SMB, he hooked a nice one that broke his line. After re-tying, on the very next cast he caught the same fish with his lure still in it's mouth.

I've only seen it once, but it wasn't exactly caught twice. I broke off on the hook set and my buddy caught it the very next cast to the same spot. My plastic worm was wadded up in the back of its mouth.

I had a small LMB, maybe 6" long, stay solid black over its entire body. Saw it day after day while feeding and it was always in shallow water. Finally realized it was blind. Since it could not see, it did not know what color to make its chromatophores to match its surroundings. Watched it for a few weeks and then it was gone. Probably got eaten by a larger LMB. Was a sitting duck, being blind.

Pat,

I have caught the same fish several times. I know because of its tag.



Brian

But with back to back casts?

Happened to me last spring. 13 inch LMB, not fat but hit extremely hard so I put it back. Next cast, exactly the same fish with same scar (GBH at a guess), DEFINITELY want to keep those aggressive, dumb genes in the pond!