Gil Color?

[Pat]

Thanks for all the replies, I live in Gates Co, just north of Sunbury N.C., but fish the Chowan, Perquimans, And Pasquotank Rivers...
Any thoughts on why some gils are so darkly colored vs the pond one posted today ? we caught some small ones with a nice blu hue to them.....think its age , water, diet?
Keep posting those photos lv em !
P S.....I`ll find those crappie someday !

[ShellQuacker]

I was just down that way today Pat. Took the NC route to get to the Northwest River in Chesapeake. The only reason I mention this, is that the bluegill, perch and bass we caught, were also very dark and not in a spawning mode. We saw one guy catch a good sized gar, and it was "dark" too.
Looked very dry down that way, and with a cypress/tupelo swamp system, the water might become acidic. Just a theory.

[gabulldog]

if theres alot of cypress in the water they would be darker when i lived in south ga i would fish the swamp alot and the white crappie looked like black and the bream was like the one in that pic

alan

[Perch Jerker35]

i dunno, good question.

[IceWarriorGill]

Tannins from the Cypress trees leach into the water causing the fish to have very dark pigmented colors.

[dedawg1149]

i agree cypress trees cause them to be darker

[Templer]

I saw one that color caught last week on another site.
Posted reason by local "expert fish IDer" was the fish was caught from dark water or possibly from under a rock.
Poster, said fish hit just as jig floated under a big chunk of rock. Gill came out from under and took jig back under rock.
Hope this helps. I do know the river the guy caught his gill from and there is no tannic acid in that area.
I'd say it was because of the fish being under cover.

[HarleyMan08]

I fished at Peaboy WMA in Kentucky last month, caught some beautiful gills, had a few that were this color, didn't get any pics, didn't think too much about it, so thanks for the info, & nice looking fish btw.