Well Now That's a Crappie Fish!!!!!!!

Crappie is the common name for this beautiful fish. It derives from the Canadian French word crapet. It refers to many members of the sunfish family. This is a fish of many names. Here are a few of the other names: papermouths, strawberry bass, speckled bass or specks, crappie bass, calico bass, sac-a-lait, Oswego bass, etc. These are just a few of its names from up north all the way to Louisiana. Whew, that's one fish that gets around.

There are two species of Crappie. The white and the black crappie. The one pictured above is a Black Crappie that was caught on one of our fishing charters with Mr. Culp on April 21, 2016. But right now we are going to talk about the white crappie.

White crappie is a fresh water fish found in North America. They were formerly named goldring and silver perch. The name of the USS Goldring was named for this fish. White Crappie are laterally compressed. They have between 5 and 10 vertical bars along their body. It has a silvery color with shades of green or brown along its back with dark lateral bars along its side and then a white belly. They are slightly elongated. It is a deep bodied but flattened fish. It has spinous rays and ctenoid scales. It has a terminal mouth. NOT THE TERMINATOR MOUTH!!! A terminal mouth with many small conical teeth. The teeth are in two rows and resemble a tool used for wool carding which makes them be called cardiform. White Crappie rarely exceeds two pounds and live up to 7 years.

If you wanna find a white crappie then look in large rivers, reservoirs and lakes. They are more tolerant of the turbid (murky) waters than black crappie. They outnumber the black crappie in murky low vegetation areas. Five acre lakes are also good places to find the fish.

The white crappie spawns in May and June. It occurs when the water temp reaches 56 degrees. The Males construct nests by making small bowl shaped depressions around brush, rocks and logs in the bottom of shallow waters. Now for the AMAZING FACTS: The female then lays between 5000 and 30000 eggs. WOW!!!! Talk about a busy dad. That's because then dad moves in to guard these nests until the fry swim away.

During the first year the little fry eats primarily on small invertebrates. When they are all grown up they eat other fish, large invertebrates like crayfish and hellgrammite (a creepy crawly bug about two inches with lots of legs...YUCK!!!) Crappie usually feed early in the morning and about midnight until 2am. They are a popular sport fish so keep in mind the fishy feeding times to catch lots of fishes.

GRAB YOU A POLE, A HELLGAMITE( if you dare) AND HIT THE MURKY WATER TO CATCH CRAPPIE. BUT MOST OF ALL JUST ENJOY YOUR DAY FISHING.