I think it's a good idea and we can all share photos to get better reference of local species. I try to catch come sort of forage each time I'm on the water. I'll start with a gizzard shad I caught yesterday and a golden eye that was caught on tuesday from texoma.

Crazy how they have that dot. Looks like a really small trout

Good idea too on the thread, I fished my home town lake of broken bow ok and fish were literally schooling all over the lake. I'm talking a half mile from any bank. They were all micro shad though. Really small. I'll try to catch some in the future for you. Heck I may get into painting lures looks fun.

Last one the top two are bluegill and one redear, I'll be able to post a lot more next week

threadfins...

Heck yea man glad to see some more pics on this thread, can never have to many good photo references.

Those last few pics make the fish look electric!!

Where did you catch the threadfin shad? I really like those picture, I have been toying around with a holographic threadfin pattern a little lately might have to break out some other colors to try and make them look like the ones you have pictured.

they should look electric seeing as how we got them during an electrofishing survey! lol those pictures are from a private lake about 10 miles from Lake Fork. I'll look through my phone and see if I can dig up some more. Like I said I can have some more for you next week. The thing I want to be able to have for you is the different color variations on bluegill even from the same water body so you can have maybe 2-3 different patterns for bluegill if that interests you.

Amazing how the shad look different depending on the angle of light hitting them. Really beautiful little fish. The holographic foils come about as close as anything I've seen to mimicking that color shift. As for the gills...they're all unique...basic 5-9 vertical bars, and then one gill pattern is as good as the next. Note the Redear's oversize orange eye. They seem to be better adapted to brackish water where they crush and consume large numbers of snails, midge larvae, and mayfly and dragonfly larvae. Their feeding habits are unique among sunfishes found in Texas. Also, they spawn only once during the summer, which puts them at a disadvantage, especially in bass-crowded waters. My grandpa used to catch the heck out of them in Kickapoo creek upstream from Lake Palestine.

8lber puked this Gizzard








There ya go, happy painting!

Fourth from the bottom is in bad shape. Maybe that is why Bass love a chrome bait with about half of the chrome wore off.

If these guys would paint one to that effect, I would like to have it.

I like it--Distressed chrome; maybe a blotchy camo type pattern alternating between bone and chrome.

It's in bad shape because it was regurgitated in the live well, half digested or at least trying to.

Not sure what this one is...Northern sunfish or Green Sunfish?

Either way its a beautiful picture.

Here's a baby Redspot. Normally they're a lot darker on the back and have more red on the belly. It was officially recognized as a sunfish species in 2013 .

the fish on the left is a Pumpkinseed, the one on the right is a Green Sunfish
colors are similar though, you can usually tell the big difference on mouth size. Greenies have large mouths whereas Pumpkinseeds do not.

This is a Bluegill and Green Sunfish hybrid, notice the yellow on the anal fun like a greenie

Beautiful picture...the lighting picks up the blue scales nicely. I don't think you can find a better source of reference than Slefler is providing.

Thank you Boisarc, as long as it helps someone. If I get something different I'll make sure to throw it up here. Some color schemes on native and coppernose bluegill I see are different and out of the norm. Very neat to see.

Here's a couple of bluegills (I think) from a pond in far north Dallas that is heavily choked with lily pads.

Please don't paint any of that BLUE. That is Turquoise. Ha....

Those are Warmouth sir, also called rock bass and goggle eye.

Thank you: aggressive little fish.

Yes sir they are some mean little guys.

Working on some stencils to mimic the stripes on this little guy.

Using plastic milk jugs for the stencil material and some old blanks that are split in half along the seams produces pretty good impressions of the lures. With a dremel tool and exacto knife should be able to get pretty detailed stripes. Tried to freehand those stripes...epic fail. Hope stencils work better. Thanks to Slefler for the great pictures

Caribbean Blue..Laguna Blue..Iridescent Electric Blue & Iridescent Turquoise ... get about as close to the bluish colors on bream as can be found. Depends a lot on how its layered onto the lure.

hi bois! i made some stencils with this pattern a while ago. easiest pattern to cut with a dremel you'll ever find. no need to be too particular because you're looking for an irregular stripe. but for the life of me i can't find the stencils.
i used a 1/64" bit at a fairly moderate speed so i didn't melt the plastic.
can't wait to see the finished product.

A beautiful Copper Nose here, shared by Meadowlark:

Scroll to the bottom:
http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...gestions#UNREAD

Beautiful mount...never have really seen a mature Coppernose...awsome coloration. Thanks for sharing the link.

Anyone have a squaw creek tilapia pic?

^ perfect. Thanks!

I'd like to contribute a few pics of what I believe are Threadfin. All of these are from Central Texas, with the majority being from the Guadalupe River lakes.

Those are gizzard shad bud, but thank you for posting your pictures very nice to have some more pictures from around the state.

Thanks to BigBass94 for an excellent reference picture. Great detail on the gills and head.

After closer inspection, I believe you're right. Those are gizzard shad. I guess I thought they were threadfin because of their top fin. Thanks for clearing that up!

Glad I could contribute to this thread.

I have a few pics of some sunfish, bluegill and crappie somwhere on my phone. If I find em', I'll post the pics. I believe I have a pic of a tilapia as well.

Not sure why the first 2 are sideways. Sorry about that. The first 2 are of my Dad with a decent catfish (not sure what kind it is but I would say a channel cat) and a tilapia (I believe it's a blue tilapia). I think the 3rd pic is of a female bluegill but I could be wrong. The catfish was caught out of Lake LBJ and the tilapia and bluegill were caught out of a Guadalupe River lake.

bump

bump

Texoma gizzard

Took the liberty of rotating and cropping Brad's pic. Very nice photo of the kill dot and the lighter coloration behind the dot. I've tried several ways to get the gold/black coloration behind the eyes and across the head and upper gills. Smoke Black, Payne's Grey or Medium Grey in that area then fine mesh over the dark area followed by a light mist of Pearl Gold thru mesh works pretty well.

Here's another warmouth. Seem to be the predominant forage in a few of the smaller lakes I fish---might explain why those lakes don't have many bass bigger than 4lbs

Lake Palestine Longear Sunfish

Nice pictures some of the best I've seen in a while
Btw where did you find those gloves??

Academy and Amazon. Very cheap, just search "fish gloves".

Thanks I'll look for them

This thread is very informative and needs to be pasted up front.
That way everyone wouldn't have to go looking for it next week, next month or next year!

Found out this is a southern logperch, my son caught it in a cast net at oak creek.

Awesome pic, thanks for sharing might make for a neat jerkbait pattern.

Great pic of the log perch !!!

My thought exactly!

bump

a different spin on the "logperch"???

big gizzard from texoma

thats cool I forgot about the log perch I need to try one on a jerkbait

Got this bluegill yesterday, different color variations then I'm used to seeing. Quite a bit of red, gin clear water with a lot of vegetation.

Wow, I would think if it were surrounded by vegetation it would have a little more green to it. Great photo!

4 more bluegill were next to the one pictured and every single one had distinctly different color variations. It was awesome, from that pale drab coloration all the way to a Strike King version of Neon bluegill.

I said "a lot of vegetation" with it being winter there's not an over abundance but more vegetation than usual.

Not bait but a nice little Ray Roberts crappie.

These are nice! Anybody have any local crawfish pictures?

pickerel from Palestine

craw from Fork

Is this a Jan and Feb. Crayfish?

No, I think it was late fall a couple of years ago or maybe late spring... can't remember.

Well critters change colors from one season to the next. It would be very helpful when posting a picture to know that information. Even a Summer Shad and a spawning Shad are different colors. In our lakes you have to be exact with the color for the season to get that extra bite or two.

Just saying; if I am throwing a Black/Red Craw in the Spring and all the Crayfish are Green/Chart., then we have a problem.

Will do in the future... you got a pic of that green chart cray?

No; but that is why baits are made in that color. One just needs to figure out what color they are from month to month in each individual lake. They will be one color in Fork and another color in Rayburn, for example. There are even different species, but there will only be slight variations of that same color, say in the month of Feb. on Lake Fork for all the species.

Someone posted an article or video not long ago in the bass section that discussed crayfish color. The red comes from being in the mud (iron or something). As long as you see the mounds, there will be red crayfish. I may not be remembering exactly right. The brain cells aren't what they once were.

Donald is right, crawfish shed their shells every 3 months or so, I have a few in my aquarium. I guess what we need to do in your lake is put out a crawfish trap every 3 or 4 months to see what color they are. May have to try it

Here's some squaw creek tilapia for ya

Quick question about them tilapia from Squaw Creek- Pan or deep fried, baked, broiled or grilled?
Congrats and enjoy the feast!

Honestly...to me I like to put them in foil, lemon, garlic, cilantro and a lil salt...grill them up....delicious!

Sounds great

This is a Log Minnow that I caught at Fork a couple of years ago.

This is a little lizard that was in my shop, East Texas.

I see those lizards all the time down here. I need to look for that color in a soft plastic lizard. Good photo!

Mean little warmouth