It sounds like physical injury. Could they have spawned and cut themselves on the rocks? Mine do that and sometimes their entire sides turn white where they scraped their scales off. They can also get torn up if predators chased them into the shallows and beat them up. The injuries usually heal on their own but sometimes bacteria (solid white or gray) or fungus (fuzzy white) take over and kill the fish. Adding pond salt and MelaFix to the pond aids healing.
If the scales aren't rubbed off but the area is white, it could be columnaris which is a bacteria that seems a bit like fungus and grows in white patches.
Here is one of my goldfish injured a few years back from spawning. Do your fish look like this?