Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Red mouth

Just out of curiosity, why would the inside of a bass' mouth turn red? Hormonal? Diet (crawfish)? I'm attempting to attach 2 pics of what I believe to be the same fish from August to December.

I would guess temperature related due to where the bright red patches are. If it were crayfish the red spots wouldn’t be so uniform

I have seen the redness inside the mouth of LMB during early spring due to some form of stress during winter. I always attributed it to winter water temperatures lower than 39F. This may not be the reason since these affected LMB are in NC. Was the pond bottom aerated 24/7 during winter?

It was not aerated at all.

Not aerating in winter reduces or eliminates one of the chances of low water temperature being the problem The other possibility that lower than normal water temp being the cause is if the pond received windy conditions during cold subfreezing air temp. Windy conditions keeps freezing air temperatures and chilled water from freezing and thus this 'over' cooled water mixes deeper into the pond than the surface layer, thus this chills or 'super cools' the overall pond water lower than 39F. If that did not happen then the LMB are being stressed by some other feature during this past winter to cause the abnormal red tissues in the mouth.