Fish Color Can Tell The Story

When Maryland Pro, JT Kenney prefished Lake Okeechobee in preparation for the BASS 2003-04 Southern Open he had no idea the area he had chosen would hold so many big fish.  "I really had a poor prefish, I couldn't get anything above two pounders consistently."

On the first morning of the tournament, however, he knew very quickly that his spot had been taken over by giants.  "I knew on the second fish that something dramatic was happening in my area.  My first fish was a big one.  Having guided on Lake Okeechobee I knew that a single big fish doesn't mean anything, however a second big fish, means you have a special spot."  His second fish was big, pushing the scales to over eight pounds.  It was at this point that he learned something else that was very special about his spot.

"That big fish was white.  All of the two pounders that I caught in this spot during prefish were very dark.  These were resident bass that have been in the shallows, up under the grass matts for a long time.  The big fish was white, indicating that it had just moved shallow from deeper water, it still had its deeper water coloring."

"As I caught more and more fish from those grass matts, it proved out time and time again.  The small fish were dark black and the bigger fish were white."

"The deal about my spot is that big fish were migrating in from the deeper water.  Everytime I caught a 6 pounder, I noticed how white it was.  This gave me great confidence in the spot because the spot was restocking itself as more and more big fish moved in over the course of the several days we were there."