Smallmouth Color Variation-

[West Fork Jason]

One fish was from my home waters (tannic river in front yard...) and the other was from a clear Hayward area lake. They almost look like different species!

[Guest]

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[Stoneroller]

I find it interesting how the smaller fish will sometimes be almost black while the larger fish will be 'normal' coloration. but then you'll catch 2 fish the same size, from the same riffle, in the same spot and one is almost black and the other is 'normal'. and it's not a melanism issue either, more of a mood thing I'd guess.

[Al Agnew]

The scientific explanation for color changes is supposed to be the individual pigmented cells (melanocytes, I believe they are called). The pigment in these cells can expand or contract very rapidly, apparently in groups, making that area of the fish darker or lighter. Smallies, when you see them unstressed in clear water, are usually almost unmarked, a uniform color with no bars or spots. The dark bars on them that we often think make them look so pretty are often signs of stress, and they can show up in the short time between first hooking one and landing it. Spawning fish, especially the males, will also be heavily barred, so the barring is also a sign of arousal.

The fish can also get uniformly darker or lighter in response to water clarity and light levels. The odd thing to me is that bass in muddy water are usually rather washed out in appearance, with no markings and light color. Another interesting thing is that wintertime fish are almost always much lighter in color than summertime fish. I believe the reason for this is that in the winter, the bottoms of most streams are much lighter in color because the algae that covers the bottom in the summer is gone and the gravel is cleaner. The lighter wintertime fish, and smallies in very clear water over a clean bottom even in the summer, will almost always have some bright red in their eyes. The reason for this is that those pigment cells are also found in the eyes, and if the fish is dark, the eyes will be dark as well because the dark pigment is overpowering the underlying red, while if the fish is light, the underlying red in the eyes shows.

What all this does not really explain, though, is the difference in color, not shade (darkness or lightness) in the fish in the original post. Smallies will almost always, as a "default" color, match the color of the water or the bottom of their native streams or lakes. In tannic stained waters they will usually have those rich brown colors, in clear, deep water they will often be that more greenish color. In Big River, the stream I grew up on, in the stretches that were choked with lead mine waste, the fish matched the color of the mine waste. Unless covered with a lot of algae (and since the waste is pretty sterile and unstable, it is seldom covered by much algae) the mine waste is a grayish color. Smallies in those sections were usually a light gray green in color, matching even that "unnatural" bottom very well.

And those really, really black ones? I just don't have a clue why they are that color. I've tried for many years to get a good photo of one that's so black, but they are almost always small, under eight inches, and when you DO catch one, in the very short time it takes to get it in and snap a picture, it has already lightened up considerably.

[Stoneroller]

these pictures showed up on facebook today. they are legit. we can discuss genetic mutations/evolutionary changes if you want, but look at these pictures this way. This is evolution that will likely fail due to the fish being more visible to predators and more likely to be killed before it gets to breeding age. Now if you take this bass and breed it with other bass like this, or even a normal colored bass for that matter. you will get more like it, and some normal ones. keep breeding the colorful ones together and we could eventually be fishing for 'koi' largemouth.

someone pointed out that this is known as 'piebald' pigmentation. it's a natural pigmentation variation along the lines of albanism (lack of pigment), melanism (all black pigment), amelanism (lack of black pigment) etc. I've heard the term when people are talking about domestic bred birds and repitles.

[Smalliebigs]

I caught one once on the Big Piney that was very Black and not a bad size fish....I just wish it wouldn't have been 17 years ago and I would have been able to get a better image, this was taken with an old disposable kodak.

[Ham]

NIce picture Jason. Very easy to see why one of the nicknames is "brownie".

I've noticed the sub 8 inch smallies that are BLACK. I wonder if they aren't holding completely in the shadow of a big rock.

The smallies in the birght sunshine riffles of the Current river have almost lemon yellow fins and really took on the color of the rocks almost pixelated variation of browns. Great natural camo.

The black splotches on that largemouth I believe may somehow be ralted to that fish having been caught and excessively handled. In Fisherman magazine has published photos of bass with very clear hand and finger printes on the them that are coal black. MUCH more common in spring. I see it from time to time, but I am not notincing a dramatic increase in that number so the fish either get over it or they are dying off.

Regardless of the color variation, I've almost never caught an ugly smallie.

[Al Agnew]

Ham, I used to think that about the little black ones as well, they must have just come from under a rock. But I've seen them all too often just cruising, not chasing a lure or anything. Since they CAN change so quickly, within a matter of a few seconds, why didn't they if they'd come out from under a rock minutes before? The black coloration is very visible from above when they are out cruising around in the open, so you'd think that as a survival strategy they would change color quickly. But they don't. So to me it's still a mystery.

As for the piebald bass, it's certainly true that injury or disease can cause black splotches. You will often see it on bass in the big box store aquariums. But the piebald coloration is also a mutation in many creatures. The ones in the picture look a little more like it's the mutation and not injury.

A lot of times, in smallies that are pretty light in color overall, they will have small, scattered, very dark spots and clusters of spots on their bellies and lower sides. It's like very small areas don't "get the memo" that they need to lighten up.

[CaptainNemo68]

Hi all - I am in Virginia. Check out the color variation on these two I caught in two separate small rivers:

[moguy1973]

Hi all - I am in Virginia. Check out the color variation on these two I caught in two separate small rivers:

One of the smallies I caught on the gasconade the other day was real dark like that one, maybe even darker. But once I had it in my hand while taking the hook out it turned to the normal light brown. Weird.