Quote Originally Posted by Jigboy View Post
Heading down to KY next Monday through Wednesday. Will be in staying up at Malcolm Creek Resort. Caught a good number of redears a couple weeks ago but looking to get into them heavy next week. Strange thing is every one of mine looked real orange color not dark like yours. Mine had the tail tail red ear but the bodies were not dark like yours. Almost looked like a sun fish except for the fact they were huge and had the red ear. Strange.
Jigboy .... isn't the orange bellied Shellcracker a male & the yellow bellied ones a female ?? Perhaps the ones you caught were a little more "pre-spawn" than the ones pictured ... and possibly males, where the pictured ones look to be mostly preggy females ?? Belly color also looks to be a bit faded out, possibly from being dead for awhile

... cp