Have you ever noticed when you first catch a crappie from about 20' down or so and bring him up that he is mostly white, after he sits in the livewell for a spell he gets his color back and you can clearly see his speckles or lines? I have noticed this my whole life, just never actually read anything about it. My daughter asked me about it the other day after I reeled one up from the dam at Lavon. It was almost all white and after five minutes, she wanted to see it again and pulled it from the livewell. She said "What Happened?" I turned my head real fast 'cause I thought she dropped it over the side and asked herself that question. I saw her holding the fish and said "what do you mean?" She told me that five minutes ago I put a white crappie in there and now it's a black crappie! I told her it was a black crappie all along, it was just white from when I first pulled him up. We tried to look it up that night and found no literature on it. A kid will always keep your mind working with thier questions!

I've noticed some similar things. I was catching crappie in one spot a week ago, and when they were kida white bellied.. Now that the hydrilla is starting to realy show up they are alot greener.

Fish that don't get enough sun light will have less color. For example fish that live in darker water(muddy water) will be pale in color. You can tell when bass have come resently from deeper water because of their light color. I did not know that they would change that quick.

I've also noticed that some of the crappie I've caught have a black stripe on top... it almost looks like someone took a black sharpie and drew a line on their back.

Males will turn Black in the spring due to hormones. They'll get darker in the livewell.

Those are racing stripes...lol
Crappoe at Lake Worth have those.

Check out thses we caught in a swamp/lake in Tampa. Never seen them this color before.

ALL, WillieFindum, here,
I lean towards nats' explaination, not enought sunlight. Nice looking batch you got in Tampa, fish aren't bad either. The crappie look like black crappie. There are two spieces of crappie white and black. According to TPWD, blacks do not change color during spawn. Also, counting dorsal spines is the simplest way to tell the differance. The racing stripe is supposely a hybrid.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/landwater/water/aquaticspecies/inland.phtml

Yeah...we don't catch any whites down there. All the bass are the same way as is the bluegill in the pic. They are just really dark.
Oh and they love white/white/chartruese.

I'd say TPWD is wrong or they need to let the the two dark males in this picture know they aren't following the rules.




The blacks I catch in Minnesota every year also turn colors with the spawn.....the males are dark, dark black and the females are green.... notice in the pic below, the two front rows are crappie..... we caught all males and just the one female this trip. All these were caught sight casting in 2 foot of water

Those have been "tagged" by Ernest himself. A real treat to catch such a specimen.

From what I have always heard, those fish caught in Tampa must have been in real clear water.
I never heard that they would darken after catching. Leave it to our kids to teach us something. Bless them.

I've noticed fish changing color after being caught. I was just thinking about it the other day actually and wondering about it, glad you posted. I'll go out on a limb and say it's a stress reaction for the fish. My theory, when a fish is scared and stressed, their color darkens as to retreat to deeper/darker water. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

I've noticed fish changing color after being caught. I was just thinking about it the other day actually and wondering about it, glad you posted. I'll go out on a limb and say it's a stress reaction for the fish. My theory, when a fish is scared and stressed, their color darkens as to retreat to deeper/darker water. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

It's more of a dark swampy water.
Nothing like I see in Texas.

Jason must be a member of the Walleye mafia also!!