Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations Largemouth with infection

Caught this one tonight with an infection around the Floy tag. This is the first time I have seen this on one. I've tagged 12 fish total and caught 5 of them more than once.
I clipped the tag off and put a new one on the other side.

This tag was put in 10/23/24. This is the 3rd time I have caught this fish and I have not fished for LMB more than 10 hours and was using a grub for sunfish when I caught her this time. Given catchability is an inherited trait I did not want to cull her, but now I'm rethinking it. Other than the infection she looked in good health.

I entered the date caught/RW below.
10/23/24 117%
3/16/25 122% (Full of eggs)
Today 101%

Could the infection be due to spawning activity?

I wouldn't think that 'sore' would be from spawning as it's on the top of the fish.

I'm not sure how big your pond is, but you may want to consider adding some kosher salt to help with the fish's slime coats.

Thanks, in watching my videos of them spawning it appears the male bumps them several times, so wasn't sure if that activity was causing the Floy tag to be pulled and irritate that area.

My pond is 2 acres, not sure I would be able to add enough salt to assist with helping the slime coating.

I am going to test the water quality. I found it odd that none of the other fish I've caught repeatedly have any sores near the tag. I understand that there's always a possibility of bacteria getting into an area like that to cause this.

I was just curious if others have seen it and what should be done. Cull, treat, or leave it.

Due to my recent issue with the infected LMB I'm looking at PIT tags.

Has anyone used the PIT tags from Voda IQ or any other vendor?

I've looked at several and there is a pretty wide price range.

Even at 2 acres, a few kitchen sized boxes of Kosher Salt would only help, and would not do any damage.

It could be enough to enable the bass to fight that infection/sore.

There is a guy on Youtube called Bamabass that has a pretty good series about building and maintaining a 5 acre pond.

He uses the PIT tags from UID, and they seem to work really well. He uses the scanner to track each fish caught and even set up sensors in the pond to monitor the bass movement utilizing the PIT tags.

But I looked at them and for the scanner, injector and tags, they run close to $3000 for everything.

A little pricey for my tastes.

I use Floy tags also and have seen similar sores on some fish. I never thought about the salt trick, thanks Sunil for that reccomendation. I think I'll add a little this weekend.

I'm a tech nerd and agree Bamabass has some pretty cool technology but YouTube didn't pay me to do what he did and doesn't pay for my posts, so I'm with you, that's out of my pond budget.

I'm looking for PIT tag options as well and look forward to input from others.


I second that, I will try that as well. I sent Mr. Lusk pictures and he said he doesn't see that very often but had no doubt it would heal.

Easy solution, start your own YouTube channel!

You shoot great stuff at your pond. However, I don't know if that is enough content.

Perhaps when you travel, you could shoot stuff at other members' ponds? Or do a ride-along with your local fish supplier? I suspect he would be fine with it when the logo on the side of his truck is included in your video.

Might as well try to get paid on stuff you already enjoy doing for free. With your tech background I bet you could find some contacts with good information about the difficulty and effort to monetize YouTube content.