Lakes are low its rough but look at this one Bronzeback !!

This one was so fat and the girth omg,,,,,,

heres a spot i got 2 weeks ago!

Another Good Smallie Always wonder why some are so bright and others are darker pigmentation??

49 minutes ago, Paul Zimmer said:

Lakes are low its rough but look at this one Bronzeback !!

This one was so fat and the girth omg,,,,,,

heres a spot i got 2 weeks ago!

Another Good Smallie Always wonder why some are so bright and others are darker pigmentation??

 

Smallies change color based on surroundings/depth & bottom composition based on my experiences. They also will color up with some time spent in a live well. The colors get much more pronounced.  

51 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Smallies change color based on surroundings/depth & bottom composition based on my experiences.

Stress also plays a factor. The longer I fight a fish, the darker they tend to get 

On 9/19/2021 at 1:20 PM, Buzzbaiter said:

Stress also plays a factor. The longer I fight a fish, the darker they tend to get 

 That’s very interesting to read.  My son landed a beauty 5lb. 7oz. smallie from shore this summer in Lake Ontario.  His drag was a bit light and the fish was very played out by the time we landed it.  It was super dark.  A buddy said that’s from eating gobies, but most smallies on Lake O./the St. Lawrence are gorging on gobies but still pretty light.  Now I’m wondering if the fish was dark from being played out.  We did carefully revived the fish and it swam off fine, albeit slowly, after a couple minutes.

21 hours ago, The Baron said:

 That’s very interesting to read.  My son landed a beauty 5lb. 7oz. smallie from shore this summer in Lake Ontario.  His drag was a bit light and the fish was very played out by the time we landed it.  It was super dark.  A buddy said that’s from eating gobies, but most smallies on Lake O./the St. Lawrence are gorging on gobies but still pretty light.  Now I’m wondering if the fish was dark from being played out.  We did carefully revived the fish and it swam off fine, albeit slowly, after a couple minutes.

so i have heard trout also get darker pigmentations after a fight and the stress involved makes sense super happy your son landed a mondo smalley! Congrats that one should have him hooked for life

Before taking your pictures put the fish in the livewell for 10 minutes or so.

You will be pleasantly surprised.

Smallmouth coloration has to do with the amount of sunlight, water color and the bottom content. They change color to camouflage themselves. Bass caught off a Sandy bottom will be very light in color. The tannic stained water of my favorite river has most of the fish very dark, almost black. Bright sun through choppy water really produces lots of dark bars on a light background. As roadwarrior just posted, put the fish in a live well for a while and the color will change quite a bit