Blind Bass 2024

Paul Roberts reply :

Was observing my ponds today when I came upon this female bass heat-soaking in a little over a foot of water. What was interesting was that she had cataracts, yet was in great body condition. (Fish do get cataracts).

What's interesting is that bass are supposed to be primarily visual feeders. But they can adapt to poor visibility conditions. Now this pond is quite clear (~3-4 feet clarity), but this bass has adapted to it's presumably virtually sightless condition, and is apparently doing quite well.

I've seen this before, and even caught a large bass (21.5") that was blind in one eye, and in great condition. I also once spotted a large 22+" small stream brown trout that had two cataracts like the bass in this picture. It too was in fine condition, but made no attempt to hide itself under cover like any other large small stream brown would do.

This bass, unlike all the other heat-soakers today, allowed me to stalk right over top of her and take this photo. She's lucky there are no big catfish in this particular pond.

moloch16 reply :

Really neat, thanks for sharing!

dmac14 reply :

In my local ponds there is a fish that i presumably think is blind looks similar to that fish. Still over 5 pounds tho

DINK WHISPERER reply :

HMMMMMMMM, i had no idea, cool info though!

Rob G. reply :

It is not uncommon to catch bass, especially smallies here in the Miss. River that are blind in one eye due to injury. We have caught them blind in both eyes before also. Pretty amazing.

SenkoShawn reply :

wow i never heard such a thing thats real neat. thanks for sharing that

Shad_Master reply :

A couple of years ago when Chatter Baits first came out I was fishing a spillway pond that was really flowing - the water was choclate milk - I threw the ChB near a patch of grass and was watching the wake as I reeled in when all of a sudden another wake exploded out of the grass and slammed by lure - this fish had catarcts in both eyes and was able to track the lure just by the vibration.

Paul Roberts reply :

Shad_Master, that's really neat. My next question, with fish like these is: How do they do it? I mean how do they close on something like a bluegill (which tend to be well aware of bass) without seeing, or being seen?

Considering her body condition, the above bass I photo'd shows no sign of compromise. She's catching bluegills -unless all she eats now are crayfish..

bassmedic46 reply :

Thats interesting, Thank you for sharing that information.

nickb reply :

That is amazing! I had no idea that blind fish could survive at all. That is incredible.

Dock Master reply :

Thanks for sharing that, now I can say I learned something today.

zaraspook_dylan2 reply :

Quote
Was observing my ponds today when I came upon this female bass heat-soaking in a little over a foot of water. What was interesting was that she had cataracts, yet was in great body condition. (Fish do get cataracts).
What's interesting is that bass are supposed to be primarily visual feeders. But they can adapt to poor visibility conditions. Now this pond is quite clear (~3-4 feet clarity), but this bass has adapted to it's presumably virtually sightless condition, and is apparently doing quite well.

I've seen this before, and even caught a large bass (21.5") that was blind in one eye, and in great condition. I also once spotted a large 22+" small stream brown trout that had two cataracts like the bass in this picture. It too was in fine condition, but made no attempt to hide itself under cover like any other large small stream brown would do.

This bass, unlike all the other heat-soakers today, allowed me to stalk right over top of her and take this photo. She's lucky there are no big catfish in this particular pond.

Wow, thats cool. How does this happen?

Maxximus Redneckus reply :

Goes to show ya we dont need a mill diff lures to catch regular bass,

Marc David reply :

Real cool... bass do have that extra 6th sense, their lateral line, which has to help out a lot

Paul Roberts reply :

Just interesting I think. Lots to think about here.

Smallmouths are better suited to pursuit, which is more visual. Yet Rob G mentions catching sight compromised smallies. That's interesting.

Largemouths are slower, more tactical; cornering prey by positioning, habituation, and tactical ambush (not lie in wait), and especially under attenuated light. This blind bass shows how much this capability can play out. I bet it has learned to hunt at night, and very dark days -which isn't all that out of the ordinary for normal bass.

Light levels mean a lot in our fishing, and I've always wondered how much of this is due to bass perceiving something wrong with our presentations, versus how much is their own inactivity or unwillingness to expend energy to capture prey that can see and evade them. I've seen both at work in my fishing and observing.

It appears that sight is less important than I'd suspected.

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Goes to show ya we dont need a mill diff lures to catch regular bass

Yes! Those are to catch anglers not fish. That's not new, but this blind bass does make you think about what exactly closes the deal.

Bassnajr reply :

Cool photo!!!

I wouldn't say the fish is "blind" per se. If fish cataracts are like human cataracts, the fish would be able to see shadows, light, movement, etc. but not clearly what it was going after. This would explain why the fish are in such good shape. That and the lateral line!!!!

weaver reply :

Over here in oz i have seen the same thing, fish with cataracts and blindness due to injury continuing to thrive no matter the conditions.

There is one particular fish i have caught local that is blind in one eye and has graced me three times with its appearence,

Two out of the three times the lure has been hit on the blind side.

Also have caught bream in the brine with serious cataracts in clear salt water bays, they are virtually visual feeders but this old guy still is able to feed.

Vibration and scent would have to play a part in these circumstances.

Dalton Tam reply :

I have cought a few bass like that but never actually knew what the deal was. Thnx for the info it was interesting.

mrlitetackle reply :

i've seen'em blind in one eye many of times,

but both......??

quite interesting....

seems to be doing well too....

thanks for sharing, never would have thought it was possible.

Paul Roberts reply :

Quote
I wouldn't say the fish is "blind" per se. If fish cataracts are like human cataracts, the fish would be able to see shadows, light, movement, etc. but not clearly what it was going after.

Could be. But, I was able to stand almost directly over this fish on a brilliantly sunny day, and snap several photos. This was the only bass I was able to get anywhere near that day. In fact, there was a smaller one (~12" presumed male) with it, that spotted me and disappeared before I got very close. It appeared as though this female had no idea I was there.

Also, human cataracts are usually treated before they get really bad. This fish's eyes were opaque white, as if completely scarred over.

carrothead reply :

Never knew that. Great post!

Paul Roberts reply :

Not sure if many are interested in this sort of thing, but I find it fascinating...

I was back doing my pond checks again, and she was there again, same location but 6 feet from where she held yesterday. I actually wondered if she might turn up dead; who knows, maybe she was sick?

I watched as a 3inch diameter branch drifted over her, wondering if the shadow would spook her. She didn't budge. I threw a few small rocks at her; she didn't budge. I got a long stick scrambled down to her (not quietly) and went to poke her (don't think I actually touched her, but was very close) and she bolted -very fast, but only about 4 feet, and buried into the low coontail. I could still see her, but she seemed satisfied ;D. She reminded me of a bullhead scrambling down into the weeds. An odd fish, but again, perfectly capable it appears.

I also got the chance to watch some bass hunting bluegills. It was pretty neat to see. The 10 bass (13" to 18") were in loose groups sometimes grouped together sometimes separating. Sometimes the 'gills avoided the bass, sometimes they stayed put and let the bass swim through. The 'gills (mostly 4-5 inchers) appeared less worried about the smaller (13-14") and most concerned with the larger (16-18"). It seemed to all be about the bass identifying a suitable target, which I couldn't ascertain what that was. But it appeared the bass and gills knew.

I saw two "chases": One of the 18"s apparently caught a 'gill after a fast 8 foot long bolt in which I didn't see the target. I saw her handling something (flashing mouth) afterward. The second was when three bass moved a group of 'gills toward another (not on purpose I believe) and when the gills realized this they turned back and one of the three bass quickened its pace moving right up close to the gills, which quickened their pace too. The bass then broke off, as if the set-up wasn't quite right.

It appeared the bass movements were random, and opportunities for an attack either presented themselves or didn't. Although some bass intermittently grouped and moved together, they didn't appear to coordinate this movement or at least plan ahead. It appeared the bass were constantly sizing up the individual gills around them, and looking for an opportunity. Now this was all under bright lighting bright sun.

Now, how might a blind bass accomplish this?? It would have to get close enough to feel prey, and this would most probably have to happen under very low light. The part of the lateral line system at the jaw and cheeks are very sensitive and directionally accurate. Get food close enough and that prey item is dinner. The trick is to get close enough.

tennwalkinghorse reply :

Quote
wow i never heard such a thing thats real neat. thanks for sharing that

2X Thanks for the info

Team9nine reply :

I've caught quite a few "blind" bass over the years, some singularly blinded and others double-blinded. So they certainly can live without some eyesight and get along under many circumstances. Your pictured fish and its size is also proof of that. That said, studies show that completely "blinded" bass suffer a 20% reduction in their ability to feed successfully in controlled conditions, probably greater in the wild, and would therefore suffer a competitive disadvantage which could prove fatal in some scenarios.

-T9

NYfishwow reply :

neat article paul thanks 8-)

MyKeyBe reply :

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Now, how might a blind bass accomplish this?? The part of the lateral line system...

There you have it. They use their lateral line to feed.

In the book Largemouth Bass by Don Oster they mention a study being done on blindfolded bass.

"In one experiment, researchers placed small cups over the eyes of bass, then dropped minnows into a tank with the largemouths. Eventually the bass ate each minnow, using their lateral lines to locate the baitfish."

Chris reply :

Bass in clear water are sight feeders bass in lakes that are always muddy are not sight feeders and rely on their other senses to feed. if you take a clear water bass that is a sight feeder and dump it in a muddy lake it will take a few days for it to adjust and will become less of a sight feeder and use more of its senses. Bass that are blind isn't much different than the bass in muddy water. Muddy water fish in bodies of water that are always muddy are easier to catch than clear water bass because the muddy water hides mistakes. These bass are also less spooky and you can fish closer to them. if your fishing a lake that is normally clear and then becomes muddy those fish are going to be spooky and are going to take time for it to adjust to the water but after they do they become easier to catch.

Paul Roberts reply :

Blind Female doesn't get the hint. Or...a blind bass goes a-spawning

I got to see this bass a few times again this spring. She appeared on three of the four shorelines on the pond.

I watched her interact with several bass, a large bluegill, and me. She is aware of what's going on around her but I couldn't determine how well she could see. When a fish approached her she'd turn slightly toward it when the approaching fish was about 18 away. It appears both sound and water movement were at work. When a fish turned away from her and pushed water toward her, she'd turn slightly away responding to the slight jet of water coming at her.

At one point I saw her cruising a shoreline and it appeared she could hear me on the bank above her (20feet away). So I got out ahead of her direction of travel and waited. When she appeared I waved my arms and she turned out, but I realized I'd moved my feet on the bank so I tried again. This time I held my feet still and waved my arms above me and she came in straight at me and ended up right below me.

Like other females that aren't already paired at the start of the spawn, she cruised close to the shorelines looking for males. I watched her at two bed sites.

One already had a line up of four females ahead of her, three better than 18 inches. (She being about 14+"). She felt the presence of one big female and backed into a pondweed clump, and held there.

At the second bed, the male had already received his eggs and, like other males in similar state, fended her off. The odd thing about her was that she couldn't receive the visual cues that said, "Back Off!"

I watched as she approached the bed, and saw the male spy her coming at about 12 feet out. He left the bed to meet her face to face, flared his jaws, and she didn't bolt. So he tried again, and she just ducked to the bottom (like a bullhead again LOL). So the male attacked, flaring and biting at her, driving her into the bottom until a cloud of silt obscured them. He returned to his bed, and I stepped down closer to see if she was still there and she bolted out into the milfoil and wriggled in like a bullhead.

Oh yes, one more thing that might indicate her vision ability: She's a dark sooty black in color. All the other bass are much paler in color with various markings (which I cannot fully decipher the reasons for yet). I seem to remember research out there that indicated blinded fish could not adjust their coloration to their surrounds. This appears to be the case with this bass.

Quote
That said, studies show that completely "blinded" bass suffer a 20% reduction in their ability to feed successfully in controlled conditions, probably greater in the wild, and would therefore suffer a competitive disadvantage which could prove fatal in some scenarios.

Brian, that's true, but there is likely a difference between bass blinded in the lab and those that gradually become so. I'd certainly expect compromised vision (and body coloration) to be a disadvantage, however it appears that this particular fish, and a few others I've seen do OK.

Neat stuff to wonder about.

Paul Roberts reply :

Update.

I had conversed with Ralph Manns about this fish and he suggested this bass had a nematode worm that sometimes infects fish. He doubted this fish was entirely blind, esp with such fine body condition.

I believe I might have seen her again late last fall, come to a jerkbait. I am not certain, but I thought I saw the clouded eyes on that fish. She moved for the jerk, aborted, and did not come again. Hope I catch her this year; I'd love to inspect her in hand.

BassThumb reply :

Very cool! Thanks for getting the pic and sharing. 8-)

SuskyDude reply :

Paul,

Two years ago I caught a very healthy, chunky, 16 inch smallmouth that for all intents and purposes was completely blind. One eye was severely damaged (couldn't have been usable), and the other was completely gone.

Had no problem chasing down a crankbait.

Paul Roberts reply :

Thanks Susky. Interesting. I felt the above bass was pretty much blind, and I got to observe her a number of times in different situations. Her vision was definitely very much compromised, but she was in beautiful condition. How she fed exactly I would love to know.

Bass_Akwards reply :

So interesting because it makes me wonder how typical this really is for a bass. I'd think it's almost if not completely impossible for a bass to be BORN blind and survive. Yet once a bass reaches a certain age, it's superior survival skills and instinct can keep it alive and otherwise healthy. It really is cool.

I wonder, of all the bass who go blind, what percentage have the genitic makeup and survival instinct to stay alive over a relatively long period of time.

I'd think that the parents of the bass Paul photographed had to have an amazing genitic makeup and gene pool. When a trophy type bass spawns, there seems to be a better chance that the offspring will be better adapted genetcally to their environment due to the survival instincts and longevity passed on by it's parents.

The particular year class of the bass Paul photographed very well might be an amazing year class of bass, especially depending on what kinds of conditions the parents had to withstand the years prior to the birth of the bass in Pauls photo.

Cool picture Paul and good post. It really gets me wondering about lots of stuff, especially how typical it really is for a bass to survive with this kind of handicap.

Matt Fly reply :

Most humans will get them, its called aging. I'm no longer 20-20 without glasses, but still see just fine with reading glasses for short distances.

I never needed glasses until I got into my 40's. I asked the Opthamalogist why, he said, your not as young as you once was. pretty simple and straight forward.

Raul did a nice write up a few years back on how a bass see's and adjusts his eyesight.

I'd like to hear Raul's take on how cataracts effect rods and cones.

brushhoggin reply :

Quote
Paul,
Two years ago I caught a very healthy, chunky, 16 inch smallmouth that for all intents and purposes was completely blind. One eye was severely damaged (couldn't have been usable), and the other was completely gone.

Had no problem chasing down a crankbait.

"Largemouth bass posses sense of mechanoreception that is kind of like a cross between hearing and touch. The organ responsible for this is the neuromast, a cluster of hair cells which have their hairs linked in a glob of jelly known as 'cupala'. All fish posses free neuromasts, which come in contact directly with the water. Most fish have a series of neuromasts not in direct contact with the water. These are arranged linearly and form the fishes lateral lines. A free neuromast gives the bass directional input. The lateral line receives signals stimulated in a sequence, and gives the bass much more information (feeling the other fish around it for polarized schooling, and short-range prey detection 'the sense of distant touch)."

seems like bass' ability to detect prey is similar to bats, only they dont have active electroreception (sensing its surrounding environment by generating electric fields and detecting distortions in these fields using electroreceptor organs) but passive electroreception, which just means they only receive

bioelectric fields. I've seen videos of people feeding their bass in an aquarium and they drop the shad or prey behind them where they, in one motion, turn and suck that prey in as if they knew exactly where it was without seeing it. i'd imagine these abilities are heightened when eyesight is lost.

Paul Roberts reply :

This seems to be a learned ability as well. There's a classic study in which bass were blinded and then fed, and they were severely compromised. Clear water bass that have to live through periods of heavy murk can get really thin -I've seen this.

But from this, and the other thread, it seems it's not rare for sight compromised bass to survive, and even prosper.

RoLo reply :

Quote
Largemouth bass posses sense of mechanoreception that is kind of like a cross between hearing and touch. The organ responsible for this is the neuromast, a cluster of hair cells which have their hairs linked in a glob of jelly known as 'cupala'. All fish posses free neuromasts, which come in contact directly with the water. Most fish have a series of neuromasts not in direct contact with the water. These are arranged linearly and form the fishes lateral lines. A free neuromast gives the bass directional input. The lateral line receives signals stimulated in a sequence, and gives the bass much more information (feeling the other fish around it for polarized schooling, and short-range prey detection 'the sense of distant touch)."
seems like bass' ability to detect prey is similar to bats, only they dont have active electroreception (sensing its surrounding environment by generating electric fields and detecting distortions in these fields using electroreceptor organs) but passive electroreception, which just means they only receive

bioelectric fields. I've seen videos of people feeding their bass in an aquarium and they drop the shad or prey behind them where they, in one motion, turn and suck that prey in as if they knew exactly where it was without seeing it. i'd imagine these abilities are heightened when eyesight is lost.

This addresses something I often think about, that fish (and other animals)

seem to possess a sixth sense or other tracking device that we may know little or nothing about.

Bass do not have ear holes (auriculars) but have evolved 'internal ears' instead.

Unlike air, which is highly compressible, bass live in a medium that is highly incompressible (water).

For this reason, sound waves travel 'through' the fish's entire body. It stands to reason

that the lateral lines of bass (median lines) would serve to detect low-frequency vibration.

Low-frequency waves are most effective at close range, because they dissipate sooner

than high-frequency waves. Accordingly, it's widely accepted that the lateral sensors of fry fish

are what enable them to remain in a unitized school even in muddy water.

Bass living in water of average clarity, tend to lose bodyweight if the water becomes muddy

(adaptive lag). On the other hand, I've observed bass living in Carnegie Lake, NJ,

which is perennially muddy water, that display average if not slightly above average girth-to-length ratio.

Remarkably, we've caught many bass in Carnegie Lake on soft plastic lures with no clacker or rattlebox,

which strongly suggests that bass are able to perceive and track microwaves, as it were.

Roger

brushhoggin reply :

now, who's gonna put out a pulsing crankbait ;D

Paul Roberts reply :

lol, that's the problem with lures -they're all made of plastic, wood, and metal.

SuskyDude reply :

Quote

Quote
Paul,
Two years ago I caught a very healthy, chunky, 16 inch smallmouth that for all intents and purposes was completely blind. One eye was severely damaged (couldn't have been usable), and the other was completely gone.

Had no problem chasing down a crankbait.

"Largemouth bass posses sense of mechanoreception that is kind of like a cross between hearing and touch. The organ responsible for this is the neuromast, a cluster of hair cells which have their hairs linked in a glob of jelly known as 'cupala'. All fish posses free neuromasts, which come in contact directly with the water. Most fish have a series of neuromasts not in direct contact with the water. These are arranged linearly and form the fishes lateral lines. A free neuromast gives the bass directional input. The lateral line receives signals stimulated in a sequence, and gives the bass much more information (feeling the other fish around it for polarized schooling, and short-range prey detection 'the sense of distant touch)."

seems like bass' ability to detect prey is similar to bats, only they dont have active electroreception (sensing its surrounding environment by generating electric fields and detecting distortions in these fields using electroreceptor organs) but passive electroreception, which just means they only receive

bioelectric fields. I've seen videos of people feeding their bass in an aquarium and they drop the shad or prey behind them where they, in one motion, turn and suck that prey in as if they knew exactly where it was without seeing it. i'd imagine these abilities are heightened when eyesight is lost.

Yep. And I imagine their sense of hearing is enhanced as well.

But it's still remarkable to me that a blind bass could thrive. The particular bass I was speaking of was not only a successful hunter, but it also managed to avoid the pike, musky and catfish that prowl the river.

Neat stuff.

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