Grey/Silver Largemouth Bass

[AwesomZZ]

Anyone ever caught a grey or silver largemouth bass? I kid you not, it was literally grey and not green. I have pictures and will post later. Just wondering if it was a freak occurence or if its pretty common.

[EBass]

I've seen them really pale whitish coming from deep water, but silver? Post da pic!

[kaine]

in the spring it is pretty common that they are a lighter color, fish are some what like people when it comes to skin tone when they get more sun they get darker that is why a fish caught from pads will most likely be a lot darker than a fish caught in 20 fow. so in the spring alot of fish havent seen alot of sunshine so they will be lighter. also the green tint your talking about usually comes from living in weeds the fish actully get stained that color and with the vegetation just starting to come in would explain why they are not stained green.

[Craigums]

Ive caught some pale bass out of stained water. Post the pic though Ill tell you if they were as pale as your fish.

[AwesomZZ]

Perhaps I'll have the pics up in a hour or so. Its on my phone and will need to chop off secret spot and remove gps coordinates, haha. But I tell ya, its grey and some white, not a single tint of green on it.

[pushbutton]

I have seen grey/silver looking smallmouth. Did not even know what they were for a few minutes. Caught them in real shallow really green water in july ??? The lake does have very deep holes though. Doubt it was just a pigment abnormality, a pretty big school all had it.

[SledNeck]

Ive caught alot of bass like that, out of mine pits

[AwesomZZ]

Here it is. Not me in photo. Grey bass huh?

[BassNut33]

I have seen them like that as well, typically in deep water.

[kaine]

that does have a really grey/silver color to it.

[TonkaBass]

I don't think I have ever seen that.

[mainbutter]

I've seen pics of silver perch and silver pike. This kind of color could be environmental, though I can name close to a dozen or so species where some individuals carry a genetic trait known as axanthism:

Xanthophores are yellow pigment in skin cells, so if you remove the xanthophores (hence the term axanthism) from an individual, often you are left with a lack of color but have various shades of white, black, grey, silver, and blue.

Most of the genetic axanthic traits are recessive and pretty uncommon.

It would not surprise me if that particular individual is a genetic homozygous carrier of such a trait, the only way to find out would be to keep him in a tank and breed him to other bass and subsequently his offspring from such pairings.

[Superduty]

I agree with mainbutter. That fish has a pigment issue genetically. Pale largemouth that are pale because of water color will not have the pronounced dark lateral line like the one in this pic.

[pushbutton]

That really is silver! The fish i have seen were more of a pale grey. Sweet catch! What did you do with it?

[Craigums]

Well I'm glad you posted a picture, I thought you meant your fish was pale but that thing has color but its straight up grey! Thats unlike any I've ever caught

[EBass]

Cool! Looks healthy just silver-ish

[AwesomZZ]

Well, we quickly took pictures of it, was going to measure and weigh it, but didn't. We let it go back into the water. This fish didn't come from the deep portion of the lake. It was probaby in 4ft of water when it was caught. So I guess this is a pretty rare fish...hmm...

[RK]

Wow. Pretty cool paint job on that fish. Thanks for sharing the pic.

[beakgeek]

I've seen this in birds, but not a fish. It is leucism. Cool fish!

[bogwalker]

I have caught 2 Black Smallmouths from the same lake.

[gritsnham]

I have caught a couple like that from a smaller lake that maxes out at 10ft. Every other bass in that lake is very green but I have caught 2 one was silver and one was almost like a weird hue of blue. Very interesting fish thats for sure! Just yesterday got one with the neatest black spot patterns above the lateral line.

Just another interesting aspect of bass fishing and shows you how unique they really are.

[TonkaBass]

Smallies are black all the time though.. this fish has messed up pigment

[Prairiefire]

This article talks about the silver pike; your bass must be a similar color phase variation.

Silver Pike Article

[mainbutter]

I've seen this in birds, but not a fish. It is leucism. Cool fish!

Just because I like to see science terms correctly, I had to reply to this (but please don't take it personally, I'm a little OCD about these things).

Leucism technically is a reduction of ALL skin pigments, almost exclusively resulting in white animals, though sometimes blue-colored pigments (particularly in the eyes) remain. This fish has plenty of melanin it seems. Albinism is a reduction in the melanin (often leaving behind the xanthophores and other skin pigments (so the yellows, reds etc). Axanthism (which I believe this fish has) is a reduction in the xanthophores, or the yellow pigments.