I caught this fish yesterday at a small stillwater. I was on a C+R ticket but I tapped this fish on the head as it just didn't look right. I showed it to the fishery staff who couldn't really be bothered with my concerns. I've never seen this before so any thoughts?? is it a diseased fish or a poorly handled on that has lost it's protective slime??

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If a man speaks in the woods and no woman is there to hear him............is he still wrong????

Quite possibly both, one perhaps as a consequence of the other.

On a C & R fishery you get a lot of fish like this. I agree with you diagnosis Sreve.

Ive had a fair few like this, and you did right to tap it.

As it was a C&R fishery, the handling theory is probably correct, though it's a fungal infection that the fish has, as well as some type of fin rot. believe it or not, you get a few like this at this time of the year that have had too much sun!

Id agree with comments already made,but to add that one follows the other.

The fish has had its slime removed possibly due to handling and the disease,being saprolegnia(cotton wool disease) is what follows next and effects larger fish more than smaller,because a smaller fish has a better immune system than bigger fish to fight off small infections.

You did right by killing the fish as it would not have mended and would eventually die as the bacteria eats away at the flesh.

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Kevin

Saprolegnia on the flanks. Fin rot is usually bacterial, and it looks like it has that too, but both are usually opportunistic infections when fish are injured or chronically stressed. You sometimes see it in waters with unsuitably high summer water temperatures, even on catch and kill waters. I suspect you probably get a few fish that come down this way after being stocked, too.

This looks to me like red mark syndrome, a disease that affects trout farms and is not fully understood. There is then a secondary infection of saprolegnia and some fin rot.
Red mark syndrome is not usually caused by handling, the fish catch it in infected ponds/lakes.
It's not usually fatal to the fish although this one looks like it has a bad secondary infection and may well not have survived.

Bw