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White or black crappie

RUGER

RUGER

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I have never noticed this before.
I caught this yesterday and several more that were without a doubt black crappie.
When I caught it I "knew" it was a white crappie.
When I got home I took another picture of it and then it looked like a black????
So which is it ? Lol
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Re: White or black crappie

Thats a black crappie. White crappie will have more prominent verticle bars on his sides.
 
Re: White or black crappie

Looks like a white male. They change colors during breeding season. I have also had them change color in the livewell.
 
Re: White or black crappie

Here is white vs black crappie. White has vertical bars and black is more speckled. The fish on top is a white crappie.
 

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Re: White or black crappie

After I blow the pic up and count the spines, I count 6. Looked like a white to me to begin with and after counting spines ,I say a white. There can be a lot of variation in the vertical bars. There is the fainest of a vertical pattern to this one it seems. The males change color at spawning time and can really be dark. I saw a picture of one that was so black it did not look anything like a crappie.

Doesn't matter one way or the other they both look alike in the fryer. :lol:
 
Re: White or black crappie

Yep on yours, if you go by the dorsal spines, it is a white crappie. Most people just automatically go by colors on them...if they have a big white belly and that golden color on the bottom sides, then they say it is a white crappie instead of a black. What depth of water they are in, water clarity, time of year, male or female, etc all impact what the coloration looks like on them. The dorsal fins stay consistent.

Here is one I caught a couple weeks ago while bass fishing. It nailed the lipless crankbait. When I first saw it, I thought it was a white crappie from the coloration. Then you count the spines and it has 7, which would make it a black crappie. She looked like she had swallowed a tennis ball in her gut. Had been eating big and full of eggs. I think she had also been out deep and just moved up into shallow water. Every time I see the picture in my phone gallery, I still want to call it a white crappie. 31627 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr

Here is one dad caught a few days ago over at Watts Bar that had been in shallow water a little while. This one is a bonafied black crappie. A biggun too.Both his and mine were released to fight another day. When I threw mine back in, I could hear the people down from me whimpering haha.
32642 by Daniel Teague, on Flickr
 
Re: White or black crappie

Good article on different types of crappie: https://www.wired2fish.com/crappie-fish ... r-crappie/

Another good way to quickly determine black or white: The distance from the center of the eye to the front of the dorsal fin is dramatically longer than the total length of the base of the dorsal fin on white crappie.

During the spawn, the male white crappie can color up to be almost coal black at times. So, color is not a good way to determine the species.
 

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