[Raven Blayde]

I caught the strangest looking Flathead yesterday that I've ever seen!! The thing was bright orange!!! What the heck? Is it something that they do when it's close to spawning season? I've never seen and orange Flathead before.

 

[Dirtdobber]

Can you post a picture?

 

[Raven Blayde]

I wish I had a picture of it. I leave my camera at home when I go out alone (which is almost always). I've tried taking pics of fish I've caught before when I was by myself, but you can never tell how big the fish are in the photos without having someone holding them up. Everything I've caught over the last 4 trips has been released. I still have plenty of fish left in the freezer and have no reason to keep them until I start getting low. I'm pretty much just going for the fun of it. lol....

 

[Fishmaster1203]

Did it look like this one?

 

[Raven Blayde]

The bright orange on the tail in your photo is it! This whole fish was that color (with the exception of the white belly).

 

[psychomekanik]

That would be an oxygen deprived flathead. Catch them below a well aerated, oxygen rich lowhead dam and they're black. Catch them in an oxygen deprived river pool or similar and they're yellow/orange. I've brought fish home to take pictures and they turned yellow like that. Put them in a stock tank or big aquarium, and they'll turn back to black color.

 

[linedrager]

look on page 6 of the 2010 catfish insider magazine (in fisherman) , says it's a form of albinism called xanthochromism, pretty cool looking fish congrates, trully a fish of a lifetime.