I’ve caught a ton of smallmouth bass in my lifetime, but I’ve never seen anything like this.
For any casual fisherman, it’s a pretty good day to catch a bass or two… maybe a full bag of 5 is a good day if you’re a serious angler. If you’re fishing derbs, that another conversation, but overall, most folks are just happy to be out there on the water, perhaps with family of friends, out in nature, maybe a couple cold ones… it’s always a good time. We’ve all heard the expression, a bad day on the water beats a good day anywhere else… and in many ways, it’s true.
But every once in a while, something incredible happens. Whether you just absolutely smash them, maybe you get a new personal best (PB), or maybe you stumble upon some kind of radioactive, neon orange super fish. For one Indiana angler… that was the case.
Josh Chrenko took a trip from his home in Indiana to the Muskegon River in Newaygo, Michigan. The Muskegon River offers some great trout and salmon fishing, as well as good walleye and smallmouth. It was just a normal day on the river for Chrenko, until he reeled in something bright orange. And no, it wasn’t a goldfish or something that got turned loose from a koi pond. Turns out, it was an incredibly rare, neon orange smallmouth bass.
In the video, you can hear Chrenko say:
“I caught my first ever orange smallmouth. I am not making this up… this thing isn’t like kind of orange. It’s like neon, goldfish orange.”
In the Facebook post, he also mentioned he had no idea these things even exist, which I have to say, I’ve never seen one. I love smallmouth fishing here in Wisconsin, I do it all the time. I’ve seen black smallmouth before, or patchy, almost camo colored smallies, but never anything bright orange.
Chrenko, who is an avid smallmouth bass fisherman, weighed in on just how special of a moment this was for him:
“For someone that lives and breathes fishing for smallmouth, this is one I’ll remember my entire life.”
He also posted a second video of him tossing the insanely rare catch back into the water.
Why Is It Bright Orange?
Of course, the smallmouth bass is a highly popular North American freshwater sportfish. Often referred to as “bronzebacks,” they typically feature a golden-olive, brown, or bronze coloration with dark, vertical bands along their sides, which provides excellent camouflage in the rocky, clear-water rivers and lakes they inhabit. Personally, I love smallmouth fishing a little more than largemouth fishing, and I find their pattern to be one of the coolest in freshwater fishing… especially the really dark ones with bold stripes.
But if a smallmouth bass appears neon orange, it is the result of an extremely rare genetic mutation known as xanthism (or xanthochromism).
A fish’s coloration is determined by the expression of different pigment-producing cells. Xanthism occurs when there is a severe lack of melanophore expression. Melanophores are the cells responsible for controlling dark black and brown pigments. In some cases, you can see the opposite… a jet black smallie that looks like it was dipped in ink. That’s called melansim.
Without dark melanin to mask them, the neighboring xanthophores, the cells that produce yellow and orange pigments, completely dominate the animal’s appearance. This turns the bass a vivid, almost neon orange or gold. It is essentially the yellow-orange equivalent of albinism (a complete lack of pigment) or the above-mentioned melanism (an over-expression of dark pigment).
How Rare Is It?
Finding a mature xanthic smallmouth in the wild is a one-in-a-million occurrence.
Because smallmouth bass rely heavily on their natural, earthy camouflage to hide from predators like herons or larger fish, a glowing orange fish is at a massive survival disadvantage. Most xanthic fry are picked off by predators long before they reach adulthood, though a few manage to defy the odds.
Believe it or not, another orange smallie was caught in Michigan shortly after the Muskegon River catch. It wasn’t quite as bright orange, but certainly another once in a lifetime bass.
