Marble is a separate flesh color from white - not fresher white fish. However, all flesh colors fade as the fish stay in fresh water longer, so a marble will eventually be as pale as a white. I have caught white springs in the ocean as white as a fresh white jack on the vedder - it is a genetic variant relaed to how well the fish can metabolize the red dyes (not the scientific term, I know) in their diet. On Saturday I bonked a fresh marbled female which was clearly different from the white chrome jack my dad bonked. Then came the surprise - I landed a spring which you could tell from the outside was a red. I was hoping it was a big coho before I landed it - it was turning red on the whole side just like a coho (as opposed to the pink highlights you sometimes see on the bellies of white springs). Red tint on the entire outside of the fish. Given that white meat is a recessive trait (it takes two white parents to make a white spring), we can expect that if these fish are spawning together we will see more and more red springs in the fall run. I was skeptical of other people's claims of red springs this year until that fish on Saturday - now I'm convinced. The Reds are coming! The Reds are coming!
On a related note - does anyone claim to be able to tell a marble spring from a white on the outside? Also, anyone notice if the Reds are bigger or smaller than the whites?
Author
Topic: vedder red springs (Read 7565 times)