My grandparents had a lake house 1/4 mile up the road from the marina, on the bluff side thankfully. I spent most of my summers there from 1977-1992 until we moved to the lake ourselves. Thanks for posting.
My son caught this cat over the weekend on an ultralight while fishing for bluegill with a worm. Got the fight on video and had a blast watching him battle it. It made 4 hard runs and I was shocked the line didn't break, we inspected it afterward and it was badly frayed, one more run and it would have been done. My daughter also caught a nice flathead off the dock with a worm. Pretty rare occurrence in our fishing experience.
A buddy of mine caught a smallmouth this weekend with a quarter-sized hole in its belly and its intestines were visible. Like yours it was otherwise healthy and gave a good fight. I'm curious to know what these were caused by.
This was in Little Cow Creek.