The bass came out albino!

[musky hunter]

Hit the St. Louis for the walleye opener. Toughest walleye fishing ever. We just had 3" of widespread rain, and the visibility in the water was about 3" in what is naturally dark water. Fishing was terrible. But I did catch and release 2 rock bass and two smallmouth, one about 5 lbs, in my search for the elusive walleye. But all of the bass were just about completely white, the color of the belly throughout. They had a complete loss of any dark pigmentation. Is the coloration a phenomonon of light penetration in the water? And when they lose light they lose color? Or is there another explanation of the odd coloration of these otherwise normal looking fish?

[Deitz Dittrich]

My Guess and its just that, a guess.. would be that you explained it. Dark water, very little light penitration, and that you caught these fish out of deep water.

Dont suppose you got a pitcure?

[musky hunter]

No, I didn't get a photo. Alone in boat, and last year's digital camera is not in good shape.

[crazyfishinut]

I recently moved from KY to MN. It was not uncommon for us to catch fish that looked white with a pinkish tint. Usually happens when you catch them deep (18+ fop) or in really muddy water. During the season if you put that fish in the live well it will darken in a few mins. Kinda cool to watch.

[musky hunter]

Thanks for the inside info on that. I was out last Saturday and picked up two walleyes and one bass. The water levels had dropped and cleared up, and the bass looked normal. So apparantly it's the muddy water that can trigger the coloration since I don't think I took a fish out of water more than 4' deep. All fish were released.