bass with blood spots

Question
Today I caught about a 4 pound bass in Pearlington, Mississippi.  It is brackish
water.  When I put him in my live -well I noticed he had a couple kind of
bulging blood red looking spots on his tail.  It kind of looks like fish eggs
but it didn't come off when he was swimming in the live-well.  Do you know what
this might be? Is it ok to eat him? Thank you so much              Chip

Answer
Hi Chip,

This would be a better question for a fisheries biologist.

I do know of a disease called "Red Sore Disease" that looks a lot like what you are describing.  Fish will pick this up from a specific plant that is in your lake.  The fish aren't killed by it and generally heal through time.  It rarely gets into the flesh of the fish so they are usually ok to eat.

Another disease that has hit the midwest is VHS which can look similar.  This is a more serious disease and you should probably contact a Mississippi Fisheries biologist if you continue to catch fish with these red lesions.

That's about all the help a regular old fisherman like myself can give you on this topic.

Nice Bass, Chip!

Good fishing!

Marc