What gives bass their color?

[BluegillsTightlines]

I have strictly largies in my local lake so I've yet to run into spots or smallies. Caught my fair share of lmb. Dinks, medium, large, no huge ones yet. But I see some with Dark greens, and others that look almost completely white. Is depth of water and vegetation a factor? For example, here are a pic of each:

[Mike L]

Yes

LMB who live in stained heavy vegetation the majority of its life will be predominantly dark.
 

Lighter colored bass spend most of their lives in deeper water. 
 

The smarter guys on here will be along shortly to explain the whys and hows. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

[casts_by_fly]

Scientific cause?  Can’t explain it. Observational?  Early spring fish in open water are almost silver. Bog fish in tannic water or with a lot of vegetation around are black on the back with a dark yellow bottom. I don’t know if it’s the food, sunlight, or what that causes it but it’s gotta be an evolutionary adaptation to the habitat. 

[Bird]

The clearer the water the more vivid the color is what I've found but it's not scientific.

 

[Team9nine]

Short answer is chromatophores, specialized skin cells that have the ability to regulate pigment. A brief description from Dr. Bruce Tufts lab:

 

Quote

For those interested in the mechanism, specialized cells in the skin called “chromatophores” contain the machinery that provide fish with this ability. There also seems to be a variety of ways that this mechanism can be regulated, including via hormones, the nervous system and even at the level of the cell itself in response to changing environments (ie to provide better matching with changing backgrounds).

He has a short YT video of smallmouth color changes with a more lengthy write-up of his experience with this.

[slonezp]

Fish are like chameleons 

[casts_by_fly]

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Short answer is chromatophores, specialized skin cells that have the ability to regulate pigment. A brief description from Dr. Bruce Tufts lab:

 

He has a short YT video of smallmouth color changes with a more lengthy write-up of his experience with this.

I had no idea that bass had chromataphores.  Squid, octopi, and cuttlefish are well known for them and it’s awesome to watch an octopus change colors just feet away from you on a dive. But bass?  I never would have guessed it. 

[Susky River Rat]

Pure muskys do this as well. Clear fish are open water fish darker are more structure related. 

[12poundbass]

6 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

I had no idea that bass had chromataphores.  Squid, octopi, and cuttlefish are well known for them and it’s awesome to watch an octopus change colors just feet away from you on a dive. But bass?  I never would have guessed it. 

You should see what smallmouth can do. You catch a smallmouth, put him in the livewell for a bit, then take him out and he’ll be a darker color usually with darker spots/stripes on them. Pretty interesting creatures.

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, 12poundbass said:

You should see what smallmouth can do. You catch a smallmouth, put him in the livewell for a bit, then take him out and he’ll be a darker color usually with darker spots/stripes on them. Pretty interesting creatures.

You don't say . . 

😎

A-Jay 

[gim]

A few years ago I caught a blue-ish colored largemouth on a lake I regularly fish in the summer.  It was a healthy fish, and didn't appear to have any obvious issues.  I sent the photos to the local fisheries office and a biologist responded.  He said it can happen with several species of freshwater fish and he's seen it with northern pike, walleye, and sunfish before but this was the first largemouth bass he's seen with this pigmentation.

 

 

[Pat Brown]

I always think it's really cool when you catch a fish that's blind in both eyes - they tend to be almost bleached white in my experience - I assume they just feel like they're in the dirtiest water/deepest darkness at all times and as a result they turn that same color.

 

Sometimes in the very Early springtime at the shallow clear pond I fish. I can see large wolf packs of females cruising looking for beds and sometimes there will be one that is extraordinarily pale when the rest are more in line with the bottom composition. 

 

Blind ole gal?

[Mike L]

10 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Short answer is chromatophores, specialized skin cells that have the ability to regulate pigment. A brief description from Dr. Bruce Tufts lab:

 

He has a short YT video of smallmouth color changes with a more lengthy write-up of his experience with this.

OP

 

I told you….

 

 

 

 

Mike

[Jig Man]

13 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Short answer is chromatophores, specialized skin cells that have the ability to regulate pigment. A brief description from Dr. Bruce Tufts lab:

 

He has a short YT video of smallmouth color changes with a more lengthy write-up of his experience with this.

I would like to know more.  My research is getting me nowhere.  Can you post some links?

[Team9nine]

1 hour ago, Jig Man said:

I would like to know more.  My research is getting me nowhere.  Can you post some links?

KenDammit28/Raul: 

Paul Roberts: 

 

Tufts Lab video and description (need to watch in YT to access written explanation):