Wheeler's fish

The fish Wheeler was catching in that flurry - they are very white. I keep hearing people say it's because they just moved up. I've heard that before but isn't it more of a product of surroundings? If they were buried deep in grass wouldn't those same fish be dark green? Maybe they're saying the same thing but in a different way.

You are correct. But 'most of the time' deeper fish will be whiter on most bodies of water. And that is why they were saying they must have just moved up. Their white color suggested they just moved up from deeper water.

that water he was fishing was also pretty stained...been my experience on Eufaula that fish coming out of muddy or stained water will be much lighter..

Yep. Not a biologist and unlike many don’t pretend to be .....but my experiences have always been: muddy water fish are often nearly white and clear water bass are beautiful green colored with distinct markings. Actually never heard of them being lighter colored because they “moved up”. Unless of course they “moved up” into dirty water!

Same as a sun tan, deep or muddy water fish dont get the UV exposure.
While I am no expert biologist, I am an expert at explaining things, sometimes I even explain things wrong.

This is my understanding as well

That makes sense but doesn’t explain fish in mats. You go to Florida and if you pull fish out of matted brackish water they will be almost black. Is there a vegetation thing going on here that interacts with their coloring because there is very little light penetration through those mats.

I don't believe that "they just moved up from deeper water" story. That lake was muddy. I've caught bass out of farm ponds that didn't have 2" of visibility that you would swear were albino they were so white and I've also caught fish in 40 foot that were the prettiest coloration. I believe and like others have said I'm no biologist, but my believe is that the water color and cover they live in dictates their pigments.

This sounds more likely to me.

+1.......... Supposedly, the water clarity was about 3 inches. So, yea, they were light colored. As far as "moved up", no. Moved over is more like it. Wheeler had spent most of his practice time mapping, not fishing. What he found was bass suspended OVER deeper water adjacent TO flats, humps, etc, in about 6-8' . He ran from spot to spot that he had previously mapped until he found the ones that had moved over to the flats in about 6-8 ft of water that was adjacent to the deeper water. He found that when they moved over out of the deeper water, they were feeding.

I'm gonna go with the opinion of the guy that found them and caught them. I figure with his career results he has agood fish behavior knowledge. Not saying this to offend anyone. Just stating my thoughts.

I never heard Wheeler mention why the fish were light color, I believe it was one of the announcers. At least that is who I heard.

Fish coloration is dependent upon water color, not depth.

Yea, exactly correct. Like I say, he supposedly spent most of his practice time mapping. To me, that tells me that this is a guy that has the fish behavior dialed in. It was just a matter of finding active fish, why they were active, and where. That tells me this is a guy that knows what he is doing.

Yea, that is the way I read it as well. On a couple of YouTubers sites that I watch, their major criticism was, in their opinions, that the announcers were kinda of making it up on the fly and said commentary didn't really match up at all with what Wheeler was doing. Filling air time, I suppose.

So how long does it take a Bass to change from its white color from its deep water haunts to a more greenish color but not being in the grass!

Stress em out and they turn black. More prevailing in a smallmouth

I fish water with decent visability and no grass. I catch some very green fish up shallow