[CoastalBent]

Launched the jonboat out of Quinlan for a couple hours this afternoon and caught this one on a Yamamoto skirted grub under a laydown... Blackest black bass I've ever seen! Picked up another one on the next cast in the same spot. Other than those two, it was pretty slow. I saw a few pretty nice cruisers in about 4 feet, so it seems like they're thinking about coming on up soon!!

 

[bass-n-tx]

good catch Kyle. the pictures of the fish in the water makes them look like they are half albino of some sort

 

[marine0311]

Nice looking fish, how big was it?

 

[Carp0401]

Was there from 7:00 to 3:00 cold! am, fished lower around reeds by the damn 1 on wat-red snake,water was 51deg moved to quinlin had one on tx rig fluke wat-candy 16ft water and 2 more on rattle snake they were far and few!seen water temps get to 56deg but still slow!

 

[dashriprock]

I've caught fish with those spots on them...I've heard different theories on why they have them, and the one that makes most sense to me is that they're basically sun spots/freckles from fish that have recently been deep but are now coming up into shallower bright water...i catch most of these frecklers in sunny shallow water in spring, and the spots tend to be on thier top half, so makes sense to me.

 

[mgid006]

Those spots come out when the fish are almost ready / or ready to spawn.

 

[Ranger_R77]

http://www.fishingfury.com/20090531/dark-blotches-on-bass/


and






According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency:

“It is possible that this condition is genetic, viral, or related to some environmental factor unique to certain bodies of water that stimulates the increased production of melanin. This unusual pigmentation (melanosis) has been observed on bass within most Tennessee reservoirs and in other areas of the country for many years. The Fish Disease Diagnostics Laboratory at Auburn University is currently investigating the cause of hyperpigmented melanosis in Tennessee largemouth bass.”

 

[CoastalBent]

Nice looking fish, how big was it?

He wasn't very big... maybe 2lbs. I didn't weigh or measure him. He's lucky he wasn't huge b/c I'd have been tempted to hang him on the wall! Really pretty fish... It had unusually golden coloration on the non-black areas. It came from a really dark pocket in the laydown that had some matted grass covering it. The second one I caught out of there was abnormally dark, but it was dark green and not black like this one.

 

[billbass]

looks like the offspring of a koi and bass interfish relationship

 

[lunker-hunter]

dirty

 

[I_Got_1]

That's a SpecOps Commando LMB on a mission to protect and serve the fat girls in Operation Spawn Defender!

K, sorry that was cheesy, but that is one cool-looking bass.

~BE

 

[J.R.]

That's a SpecOps Commando LMB on a mission to protect and serve the fat girls in Operation Spawn Defender!

K, sorry that was cheesy, but that is one cool-looking bass.  

~BE

 

[Ambassador]

I wonder if that isn't one of the less common varieties of black bass... like a Guadalupe or the like.

 

[Ambassador]

I looked up all the micropterus subspecies, and it doesn't appear to be one. My first impression was Calico Bass, but that of course is a saltwater species.

Congrats. A once in a lifetime fish.