I just caught a 1.5 pounder, beautiful largemouth. Had a nice dark green fade to a golden white. The only thing wrong visually was that it didn’t have the characteristic black blotchy stripe. 

 

Has anybody ever seen this before?

Yes, it’s fairly common in some of the waters I fish. A lot of bass I catch are silverfish or all green, and lack the usual dark horizontal stripe. 

5 hours ago, HeyCoach said:

I just caught a 1.5 pounder, beautiful largemouth. Had a nice dark green fade to a golden white. The only thing wrong visually was that it didn’t have the characteristic black blotchy stripe. 

 

Has anybody ever seen this before?

Some of the bass I catch in South Florida are golden colored and you can barely see the lines you speak of it at all. Have also caught some big bass with very clean looking golden coloration with dark lines, which to me are the most beautiful colored largemouth bass I have seen. These bass come from some extremely clear waters we have down here.

Yes.

Camouflage. Probably spent its time in open water or on/near rocks. A fish that spends its time in weeds will be darker and have a well defined stripe. If you were to put the bass you caught in a dark livewell for a couple hours, it would darken up and you would surely see the stripe. 

I pulled one out of a muddy river near a dam under a bridge that was barely even green and had no stripe. I've seen many others as well, but not to that extreme. Fairly common.

Depends on water clarity, bottom makeup, time of year, water temps, etc.

 

I caught a couple like that yesterday.  They were very light colored, like a very pale green and had almost no black stripe at all.  I caught them probably 200 yards from the nearest grass on a large offshore bulkhead put in place to prevent erosion.  My assumption is they live out there near that bulk head most of the year, and don't get the darker colors like the fish that live in the grass.

Will there be a difference in pattern on the same fish between summer and winter?

 

I haven't caught enough bass in enough seasons to make any real conclusion, but it seems like winter bass will be dark and have a defined pattern with dark and light green fading to white while summer bass in the same area are just a solid green/gold. 

 

Winter bass:

 

Summer bass:

 

Dinks always seem to have the most defined pattern too. I guess because they haven't been around long enough to fade. 

 

I don't know if you can line up seasons to color, though seasons would dictate their location, and that has an effect.  The one I showed above was from a pond, and just after ice out, water temp barely 40°.  This one is a summer fish, from a deep clear lake.  I caught it from a weedy laydown in around 8' of water:

 

 

And then this one from a very cold spring day, water temps in the low 50s, caught VERY shallow:

 

 

I'm gonna say it's warm, judging by my clothes.  I think it was mid June, but not sure:

 

 

I have others that show the opposite.  This was a weed fish, water temps above 80°.

 

 

Not trying to argue, just showing data.

 

@J Francho.  I don't think that white t-shirt guy in the last pic you posted has the same passion for fishing that you do...LOL

Right?  LMAO

 

On 6/24/2018 at 3:46 PM, HeyCoach said:

I just caught a 1.5 pounder, beautiful largemouth. Had a nice dark green fade to a golden white. The only thing wrong visually was that it didn’t have the characteristic black blotchy stripe. 

 

Has anybody ever seen this before?

 

I pulled this guy from a farm pond in April last year, just short of 12 pounds, was surprised that there was no stripe at all.

On 6/25/2018 at 12:17 PM, RealtreeByGod said:

Will there be a difference in pattern on the same fish between summer and winter?

 

I haven't caught enough bass in enough seasons to make any real conclusion, but it seems like winter bass will be dark and have a defined pattern with dark and light green fading to white while summer bass in the same area are just a solid green/gold. 

 

Winter bass:

 

Summer bass:

 

Dinks always seem to have the most defined pattern too. I guess because they haven't been around long enough to fade. 

 

Middle bass is a LMB, top & bottom look like Spots.

Tom

Up north here pretty common with both greenies and brown fish. I notice it more in spring. Habitat I guess. Back a few years ago I livewell tanked some Smallies that were real nice fish and I wanted to take some pic of. Called the wife to bring camera and have her meet me at the river near where I was fishing. All 5 of those fish took on a completely different color pattern. I believe from the tank being dark and possible aggressive mode of 5 large Smallies in that tank. After pics I released them back into the holes I took them from. Fish were in great shape, seemed as healthy if not healthier than when I caught them. Went on to catch 4 or 5 more before I quit that day. It was my best Smallie day to this day. 

I’ve caught some very dark bass but never a super silver bass. I may have but not recently according to My phone pictures 

On 11/30/2020 at 12:31 PM, WRB said:

Middle bass is a LMB, top & bottom look like Spots.

Tom

Based on the jaw line, I'd agree. The spots usually have a more distinct 'line' too. That's the first thing I think of when I see that much contrast.

Place I used to fish a lot when it was convenient to my last job used to give me bass that looked all different kinda ways. Didn't get a lot of dark patterns out of that water, and I suspect, like @slonezp mentioned above, that it's because there isn't a whole lot of vegetation in that pond – it's a rock/mud bottom bowl with the wood and trash you'd expect, and that's about it otherwise. 

 

This is the most interesting one I've ever caught out of any water, though.

 

I dig that VIR t-shirt.

I've caught a few with no or very subtle stripes where I live .

At this point I'm convinced the coloration is basically a bass tan. The deeper the fish seems to live, the lighter it will be relative to the shallow fish in the same lake. The dirtier the water, the less coloration relative to average clarity, and VV. So a fish at 12' that spends most of its time at that depth, but in clear water, will look like a shallow fish in tannic water. I can't quite explain how a bass in the shade of weeds is getting a tan, probably just ambient light vs one out deep, just like me at the beach. Pretty sure they don't have the ability to actively or passively change color (or do they?).

 

It is a pile of anecdotes, but I watch it now to get one more clue about what they are up to, particularly if I see light fish biting up shallow mixed in with regular color fish.

 

Am I crazy/have I made this all up?

 

Ok so I read all the post on this subject. Now I just finished fishing a small farm pond. I caught 21 bass this morning. 1 3# then a 2# then 19 a pound or less. About half of them had a dark black stripe the other half had no noticeable stripe. Are they the same kind of fish? The water is black but clear. The pond has not been fished in a long time and I believe the bass may be over populated. Pond is about 3 acres and overgrown. All fish were caught in the same area from basically the same place. I got a strike every other cast. Top water broken back minnow and ultra lite rig.

 

2 hours ago, Julien Buzz Johnson said:

Ok so I read all the post on this subject. Now I just finished fishing a small farm pond. I caught 21 bass this morning. 1 3# then a 2# then 19 a pound or less. About half of them had a dark black stripe the other half had no noticeable stripe. Are they the same kind of fish? The water is black but clear. The pond has not been fished in a long time and I believe the bass may be over populated. Pond is about 3 acres and overgrown. All fish were caught in the same area from basically the same place. I got a strike every other cast. Top water broken back minnow and ultra lite rig.

 

That was a great day.. and welcome aboard the forum

On 6/25/2018 at 9:47 AM, J Francho said:

Depends on water clarity, bottom makeup, time of year, water temps, etc.

 

Nice fish