Fish full of eggs

[BuckhrnBasser]

We had a local club tournament on Buckhorn lake this weekend, and I took home a few fish that had died to eat to keep it from being a total waste. Upon cutting into the fish for filleting, 3 of the 4 fish were slap full of eggs. 2 had bloody streaks going through the eggs, but one of them had eggs that had turned black and looked like a rotten piece of fruit. Has anyone had the same experience?

[Big T @ E.C.]

One of my fishin' buddies, told me this was caused by either 1 of 2 things. The fish either could'nt spawn in the spring, because of temps, water levels, ect. Or they spawned real early and are trying to spawn again. Those bloody streaks, and discoloration in the eggs, is where the fishes body is trying to absorb the eggs, sort of like us burning fat, for energy. Hope this helps, and if you find out different, hollar back... Tr

[R19]

I have caught largemouth bass in March,April,May and June that were full of eggs.On one rare ocassion I caught a female in early July that had a bloddy tail and eggs were squirting out of her. As mentioned before the conditions may have not been right and they were late spawners. It has also been proven that a small precentage a the productive females that spawn early will spawn a second time if the conditions are right. When most people think of the largemouth bass spawn they associate it with late April or early May and that is correct in most cases but there is circumnstances that will cause a late spawn.