Actually, the princess Debbie was fascinated, too. She knew I would clean up the mess, or she would kill me.
You guys are fast...you already figured it out. Look at these photos.
As I cut the stomach, look inside. The fish's organs were in pretty good shape. Its liver had some parasites, but not enough to alarm me. The heart was good, gills were normal. Kidneys were a bit distended, but I think because of the health, not the cause. The air bladder was too large, I think to help with equilibrium of a fish obviously starving.
Here's what came out of the fish's stomach. Notice in the lower left, that's a twig with what looks like a small bryozoan. This bass ate a twig with jelly on it!
The landowner had already taken out one plastic bait, from the gullet of the fish while in the live well.
My deduction? This single fish had a fetish for soft plastics. No hooks were found inside this fish. I think it ate discarded worms, couldn't digest them, clogged its system, and deteriorated. Talking about constipated!
