Did I catch a golden Bass?

[thediscochef]

So I was just out at this pond I've never fished before and pulled out this fish, about 2.5lbs. It's fins and mouth were a noticeable gold color, do y'all think this fish has xanthism? I think it does considering the coloration of the other fish I caught there (pictured as well). Just wanted to see if others thought so as well before I claim to have caught a golden bass.

[Fishlegs]

It looks yellowish gold to me. I don’t know what the technical term would be, but it is definitely a cool, and unusual fish. Nice!

[Bluebasser86]

Looks like a bass that came out of cold, muddy water to me.

[thediscochef]

6 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Looks like a bass that came out of cold, muddy water to me.

This is what it probably is, the gold in the mouth and on the gillplate is the only thing that has me wondering though. Nothing else that size I've caught this year in similar conditions has had that coloration either. But, it's colder today than it's been.

[Bluebasser86]

I've caught a lot of pond bass when the water is cold and muddy that look like that. Probably has something to do with their diet also. 

[thediscochef]

I've caught plenty that had a yellow tinge to them but nothing that stood out that hard before, it just really surprised me

[The Bassman]

As mentioned there's two things involved here, cold and muddy water. Here in IN bass start taking on the gold overtones about now. In clear water the fish are really vivid with dark green coloration overlaid with the gold. Pale green or silver is a sure sign of dingy water.

[thediscochef]

Note the extremely orange tone to the mouth and fins though, almost no green to them whereas the bass you pictured still has obviously normal pigment in those places. I also posted two different bass - the first three pictures are the yellow one and the last picture is a normal colored bass I caught right beforehand. They're very different in color. I'm not saying I'm convinced it's a genetic anomaly, it's probably more diet related but it's a more abnormal gold than your average bass.

[thediscochef]

I catch bass with a goldish sheen regularly, almost everything I catch here has yellow pectoral fins as you can see. The orange in the actual tissue of the above fish is the thing I'm more referring to, it's just way beyond my experienced normal range both for the other bass I caught there that day and the rest of the area. 

[Skunkmaster-k]

That is pretty cool. 

[thediscochef]

So I think this is a dietary thing in this pond - I went back this morning and caught two more bass. One about 1.2lbs larger, another about a half pound. The big one had the extremely yellow fins, the smaller one was normal colored albeit a little washed from the muddiness of the pond. I also caught a pretty good size white crappie that was washed but not orange. I think that as the bass in this pond age, their diet is probably crayfish heavy, or otherwise varied in a way different than all the other local ponds which leads to the pigment buildup. If this is xanthism, it's not genetic but rather dietary best I can tell.