Features and behaviors from the Crappie Identifier
Crappie Identifier is a big part of the fishing scene. In fact, a recent study determined that only the walleye surpasses the crappie as the favorite fish to catch. This is due, in part, to the crappie’s fine flavor and its prevalence in most lakes and many rivers. If you have never tried crappie fishing now is great time to start.
Crappies can be caught in a variety of ways. Common techniques include fishing a minnow beneath a bobber, casting a small jig tipped with a soft plastic body or casting beetle-spin lure or small hard plastic lures. As crappies increase in size they change their diet from eating mostly insects and crustaceans to eating mostly fish. As such, lures that imitate a small fish can be good for catching a big crappie.
Crappie Identifier
Black Crappie
Black crappie have white bodies with a dark green and black back. Throughout their bodies they have black and brown spots.
White Crappie
White crappie have a white to silver body with a dark green back. They have blotches that make vertical bars across their sides.
How to Spot the Difference Between Black & White Crappie
- Black Crappie: 7-8 spines on their dorsal fins and have black irregular blotches on their side.
- White Crappie: 5-6 spines on their dorsal fins and have vertical bars on their side.
Diet:
As crappies increase in size they change their diet from eating mostly insects and crustaceans to eating mostly fish.
Habitat:
Both white & black crappie live in lakes, rivers, and reservoirs throughout the United States.
Crappies like to be near cover. In spring they hang out near brush piles, sunken trees, cattail stands and other places near shore where predators don’t have an easy path of attack. Crappies also can be found in between the branches of sunken trees and brush piles. Fish hiding in sunken timber are not easy to reach due to all the tree limbs and twigs yet if you can sneak a bait into these areas they are good places to fish.
Later in the year crappies tend to stay in deeper water except during dawn and dusk when they move toward shore to feed. They can be found along underwater points, humps, deep weedlines and other structure.
Angling:
Crappie are one of the easiest fish to catch. They are a schooling fish so once you find them, you can catch the one after the other. To find crappie look for submerged structure.
Although crappie aren’t as large as other freshwater fish they put up a tremendous fight which makes them very fun to fish for.
The best bait for crappie are minnows, crappie jigs, small tubes spinners and minnow type soft plastics.