I decided to catch a few Bluegills for a meal. The lake is just packed with them. I caught probably forty or so, throwing the vast majority back due to size. Something that became evident before long was a lot of the big ones have lesions on their sides, red roundish areas about the size of a dime. One had noticeable bumps on it's side rather than the red spots. Probably 25% of the large ones showed this. Is this prevalent around the lake and does anyone know the cause? During spawn I know stress causes a drop in their immunity to disease so possibly that is the case. Anyone that actually knows if this is a problem and if we should not be returning them to the lake please email the Pride and I will post it.
Quite a few years ago I remember we had somewhat the same problem with catfish. The same sort of spots but larger and only on the larger fish. The was some killoff as I recall and I believe it was called a fungus. There was no long term effect with that occurrence.
Thanks for any information. Ken Dillenburg