A popular game fish in Virginia, largemouth bass are typically olive or dark green in color, with a white underside and black splotches that form a stripe across their bodies.

But the one he had caught was golden, its skin shimmering under the September sun.

Moore, who had never seen any fish like it, measured it and took photos before releasing it back into the water.

Then he pretty much forgot about it.

But in January, Moore met Bob Smet, who works for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, during his shift at a Midlothian, Va., ski shop. The two got to talking about rare animals, and Moore mentioned he thought he might have caught an albino largemouth bass.

Shortly after, on Jan. 14, he emailed photos of the fish to Smet, who forwarded the message to colleagues. Alex McCrickard, an aquatic education coordinator at the wildlife department, immediately knew what it was.

During his time with the department, he had seen the mutation just once before in 2020, when an angler from Staunton, Va., caught a golden crappie. As with the largemouth Moore caught, its golden skin was produced by a rare genetic mutation that gives fish a yellow pigmentation, a condition called xanthism.

“People typically think of it as a one-in-a-million fish,” McCrickard said.

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The department made a public announcement about Moore’s catch on Thursday, catapulting the fish into newscasts and headlines across the country.

“This experience has been the most publicity that I’ve ever had with fishing,” said Moore, who dreams of being a professional fisherman. “I just, I hope it benefits me in some way in the future.”

The 16.5-inch fish’s gold sheen comes from a genetic mutation that changes skin pigments — a rare sight in Virginia’s waters, the state Department of Wildlife Resources said last week when it announced Moore’s catch. Like Moore, most anglers don’t even know golden largemouth bass exist unless they’ve caught one, McCrickard said.

“Those fish stick out like a sore thumb,” McCrickard said. “They don’t look anything like they’re supposed to.”

When he caught the golden-skinned largemouth bass on Sept. 12, Moore was practicing for a fishing tournament later that week.

The 28-year-old arborist who grew up in Chesterfield, Va., has fished for his whole life. As a child, he would ride out with his dad on a bass boat and fish from the banks of Buggs Island near North Carolina. With time, he started entering fishing tournaments, now competing in dozens of them each year.

Over his decades of fishing, Moore has seen out-of-the-ordinary fish.

He’s caught fish with unique, spotted pigmentation. He’s been recognized by the Department of Wildlife Resources for catching fish that were greater in length or weighed more than average. But none were like the golden largemouth.

“I thought it was actually a red fish, a saltwater fish until I lifted it into the boat,” Moore said. “And it was not a red fish.”

Throughout the experience, he’s harked back to a tagline of many of the fishing tournaments he’s competed in — “You’re one cast away from being a hero.”

“Any cast, it could be something special,” Moore said. “That’s why fishing is so fun. So, that was my special fish.”