I caught a large mouth bass today with only one eye. Not sure if it is a defect or it got attacked. Has anyone ever caught a formed fish?

I have caught quite a few bass with only one eye. I think most of these are fish that have been caught, and had a hook get in their eye.

ive caught fish with their tail kinda sliced of at a corner. (possibly hit by a trolling motor, etc...?) ...however, id have to see it to give you my opinion. did it look like there used to be an eye there? was it bloody? or did it have scales that covered it as if it only had one eye at birth? ...hope this helps :-)

huffmanl43, Only one eye can be a deformity or a former injury. As you've learned they can still locate & catch prey. As for the deformed fish I have caught many in many different lakes and rivers. Sometimes it seems like a lump or growth on the fish (humpback) while other times it seems the backbone didn't form correct (not straight). I've even taken some of these to eat and noticed while cleaning them it's clear that there's nothing wrong - that's just the way they grew. Fish can also have parasites and tumors.

Other times it seems there is an outside influence like pollution that creates open sores on the fish. West Point on the GA/AL border used to be bad with this years ago. It got better when they changed everyone in Atlanta to a new (lower phosphorous I think) formulation of laundry detergent. You can also see open sores and wounds when there's been a lot of tournaments or there's been a spawn. Fish get all beat up during spawning season but they heal quickly and recover from it fine. I've taken the same approach to the fish returned to the lake after a tournament. I honestly feel they heal fine and rejoin the population without ill effects.