Question for someone with a fisheries biology background

[redchaserron]

I often catch large black drum when sight fishing for redfish. Sometimes I'll catch large drum that are "bright" and clean looking, and they usually run and fight hard and make a good accounting of themselves. Often though, I catch large drum that are a festering stinky mess with rotting fins, sometimes canker type sores on them and they stink to high heaven. These usually don't fight so well. Can anyone tell me what they are suffering from? Is it some sort of fungal infection? Just curios. Here's a nasty one I caught today. His fins and tail were rotten, his tail bled so much in the boat it looked like a crime scene. He stunk so bad that when I got back to the launch I changed clothes before getting in the truck because he had gotten me all stinky.