Redear question?

I wish I would have taken a couple pics, but I have already cleaned them. So, on to my question. I know that the color of the flap on a red ear determines the sex of the fish. After bringing a bunch of fish home today to clean, once we started digging them out of the cooler, none of the fish had orange or red flaps, and yes, they were definately red ear. Has anyone heard of this, I did not know if it had something to do with the time of year, because I have never caught them this late into the fall and thought that might have something to do with it. Any info????

Happens all the time! Did you ice them? We have a 45 minute drive home from our favorite lake and by the time we get them home the redear's bellies have faded from mustard to butterscotch, the ear flaps are all light orange and the bluegills gain their pink/purple hues from being dark when caught. We figure it's the ice and what it does to the fish's body?

yeah, they are like that where I fish too. and if they do have any red or cream color to the ear it is very slight.

Yeah, we did ice them down before the drive home. Thats what I always do with my catch, just guess I never noticed it until today.