Short Trip This Morning, Very Short Fishing Report, May 30

[Phil Lilley]

Bill and I put in at Baxter 5:15 am in hopes to catch a couple of limits of whites for a fish fry I have coming up on Father's Day. Upon getting to the ramp and seeing the wind on the water, our anticipation was dampened.

Boated to the hot spot and was greeted by white caps. No white bass surfacing in this-- for sure! So we threw some topwater and caught a few fish and then sought more calmer water.

Went back close to the Baxter ramp and found shelter from the SW wind. We threw a shad crank bait on a good smallmouth bank, according to Bill, and it was! He put another "client" on fish. I landed this 4.1 pound brownie. She was very dark and distinguish looking. Very heavy, dense body.

Caught another couple short bass and called it a day... and it wasn't even 7 am.

We'll try again when the wind dies down.

Thanks, Bill!

[Gone Fishing]

Very nice fish. I love those dark ones.

[Feathers and Fins]

Gotta say I love the dark ones also nice fish Phil

[bjovan]

Awesome fish!!

[abkeenan]

Nice fish Phil. Question: Is the color of a fish genetic or is it due to the amount of sunlight or lack there of that causes a fish to be light or dark? Can they change color throughout their life/year?

[Smalliebigs]

Sweet Phil!!!, I knew when you said you were going with Bill you at least had a shot a nice one. It sounds like it was about as windy as last Thurday??? bummer wish you guys could had you fish fry. Thats a sweet smallie though

[laker67]

Wow, great fish Phil.

[bjovan]

Hope to get into some whites the week of the 11th for fish fry fair. Love to get a few of those 4 lb brownies for fun!! Staying at mill creek resort looking forward to it.

[Hunter53]

Nice fish Phil. Question: Is the color of a fish genetic or is it due to the amount of sunlight or lack there of that causes a fish to be light or dark? Can they change color throughout their life/year?

The amount of sunlight/lack of water clarity definitely plays a role in a fish's colorization.

An example of this is there is a couple farm ponds that I fish. When the water is dirty the largemouth turn a real light color with hardly any darker lateral line to them. When the water is clear (see 6-8 foot clarity) the largemouth will get really colored up with a dark lateral line. They can change back and forth colorwise in as little as 3 weeks or so.

[Champ188]

I've had smallmouth change color drastically in my livewell in less than an hour. Seems like if you catch a light-colored one and put it in the livewell, it will turn darker. Really nice fish, Phil, but how'd you get Babler to fish a bank? Last I heard from him, the only purpose that Table Rock's banks serve is to hold the water in.