A Cordell Lake angler recently caught a one-in-a-million type of fish after reeling in an orange bass.
TWRA Fish Region Three Reservoir Manager Mike Jolley said orange bass are extremely rare due to a natural phenomenon. Xanthism is a genetic mutation that causes unusual orange pigmentation in a fish’s skin. Jolley said ironically, the only other report of an orange bass happened this year at Cordell Hull Lake as well.
“I’ve worked here for over 30 years, and we’ve never caught one in our data samples where we go out and do different collections of fish and different things,” Jolley said. “So really rare and also no other reports from anglers before this year.”
Jolley said he is unsure if the phenomenon is new, but he does think the extremely rare trait may be passed along among the lake’s current smallmouth bass population. Jolley said though the orange color makes the fish special, it also makes them an easy target for predators.
“They stick out, you know, they don’t have the camouflage like they would with their natural colors so much,” Jolley said. “So the orange, the fact that they can grow to a bigger size, being that bright orange out there, they really have, you know, been exceptional in being able to flee and being predated on as well.”
Jolley said he began researching orange bass once the catch happened. Jolley said, unfortunately, there is not much information on orange bass.
“Cordell Hull has an excellent bass fishery there,” Jolley said. “It’s one that we monitor, you know, bass populations, and really, the population in there now, it really looks great. I do think it will be on people’s minds that are fishing Cordell Hull that, you know, what if one of these I pull up is orange like that one I saw or heard about.”
Jolley said he has seen slightly different color tones of fish, but nothing this extreme before. Jolley said the fish looks like a completely different species of fish. You just never know what you might catch when you go fishing here in the Upper Cumberland.