From Light to Darkness

[jeffroey]

Happened to be browsing my fish porn from the past couple of years and although the two attached pix are from entirely different watersheds in different years, I think they represent my most pale and darkest Brookie I've landed and photoed.

I thought this was interesting and I hope the likes of Mike and others weigh in on what drives this much variation.



Not quite this significant but I have seen quite a variation out of the same hole on the same day

 

[Mike]

I suspect that the dark one was blind either on the side facing the camera or on both sides. The eye looks damaged, but that may just be the picture resolution. Extra light color brookies tend to come from light bottomed streams, such as white sand, calcite, and stream bottoms covered with iron precipitate. They also quickly lose color sometimes when there has been a shock to their system that has placed them in extreme stress.