besides the difference in the scales?

One is a mirror carp, the other a common. Its genetics.

The bottom carp is an armor scaled (sometimes referred to as full mirror scaled) carp which is genetically intermediate between the normal scaled carp above and the "linear" mirror scaled carp which has only lines of scales down the back, side and sometimes belly. A fully unscaled carp would be a leather carp.

These seemingly very different patterns exhibit what is called simple Mendelian inheritance. Breeding linear mirror scaled to normal scaled will yield about 1/4 armor scaled. When in the "wild" you will see a lot of variations on this theme and the mirror scaled carps are not that uncommon. Less common is a carp with no scales at all or a leather carp.

Carp, like hogs, have been selectively bred, line bred, inbred, outbred, crossbred, etc. then released or escaped into wild waters the world over. Pretty much any carp you might find in North America is descended from domesticated fish brought here from Europe and Asia in the 1800's. Then you add in all the bait carp, koi, and other fish to the mix so that there is quite a bit of diversity within the species.

Nice catch.

Thanx for all the info coC angler and fishbreeder

Nice fish Gar i caught a partialy scaled mirror out of the SA again nice fish

Thanks wildman this is the first one for me out of the leona river