Serious question here, not trolling...

So I fished a small lake yesterday, max depth around 18' and caught some decent fish along a breakline from 4' to 10'. The lake was slightly more stained than normal, water temp in the low 50's. There is very little vegetation in the lake since it cooled off. All the fish were much paler in color than normal and had the yellow-ish ring around the eyes. I realize the pale color is probably related to the stain in the water and lack of vegetation, and maybe related to the water temp as well, but what - if anything - does the eye color mean?

I've already asked Ken A and attempted to reach Gruber but, well, he's unavailable...

It means the fish are biting. Glad you caught one.
Gruber could solve this mystery. Ken, not so much. Ha..

I guess that is one way to look at it!




Truth!

You guys be nice. I am very sensitive ya know

For Gruber this small lake would not even be deep enough for bass to exist!

The only time I catch bass with that yellow ring around the eye is usually this time of year through the spawn. You are right those fish are always pale. I assumed it's because they had been out deep for quite a while and had just moved up.

I read somewhere that it has something to do with how active the fish are. As the water cools down they get less active, like chasing Shad all day, spawning etc.
Notice how their iris is red during the spawn? They are very active and excited then. Also if they are chasing bait on top all over a lake during the summer they have red or bright orange iris.
Don’t know if this is fact as I can’t remember where I read it but sounds plausible.

The brighter the sun, the more the melanin in the bass’ skin and eyes will be triggered to darken the skin and eye pigments.
This is the time of year we can have days/weeks on end without bright sunlight. Less UV to trigger the pigment changes in the bass’ eyes and skin=lighter colored eyes and scales.

Suppose you can see this in fish that tend to live in muddy water and/or deep water where UV doesn’t penetrate.

That sounds like a reasonable explanation to me. Thanks!

I think he'd make the caveat that there aren't schools of hundreds of 10 lb'ers in a lake that small, probably only one school with 50 - 8 lb'ers.