White versus Black Crappie on Crankbaits

[crappiechappy]

I notice a lot more white crappie than black crappie being caught on crankbaits. Do the rest of you see the same thing and if so what is the reason behind it? It seems to me that whites like the bigger faster baits and the blacks like the smaller slower baits. I'd love to hear some opinions on this.

[TapOut64]

I would have to factor in that in an informal pole I ran here 66% of those who responded catch more white crappie than blacks. This is my first year pulling crank baits and my lake only has black crappie and I'm off to a rather slow start so perhaps there is something to it. However I sure hope not, otherwise I have sunk a bunch of money into some useless crank baits. (60 of them)

[PanMan_VA]

I would have to factor in that in an informal pole I ran here 66% of those who responded catch more white crappie than blacks. This is my first year pulling crank baits and my lake only has black crappie and I'm off to a rather slow start so perhaps there is something to it. However I sure hope not, otherwise I have sunk a bunch of money into some useless crank baits. (60 of them)

The crank baits are still not useless if you don't catch crappie on them as long as they are the floating kind. If you ever find yourself in a boat that is sinking, just grab the box all of your crank baits are in. You should be able to use it as floatation in addition to your PFD.:p

[Speck]

White crappie tend to roam open water more frequently and chase schools of shad. Black crappie relate more to cover. That isn't a hard set rule because you can catch both in either situation but for the most part I find this to be the case.

[crappieken]

Here are the reults of a study conducted on Kentucky Lake in 2004. These resutls were for the first week of June. From their studies, I get the idea that black crappie are not going as deep as the white crappie in the early summer months.
Hot summer-like temperatures have finally arrived, bringing with it sporadic thunderstorms throughout the week. High’s have been in the upper 80’s to lower 90’s and are expected to remain into the weekend. Low’s have ranged from the upper 60’s to lower 70’s. As of Thursday morning, the lake elevation was 361.45 and is expected to drop slowly for the next couple of days. By Saturday, the lake elevation is predicted to be 361.10. Water temperatures in Sledd Creek are ranging between 81.7 – 84.0 F. Water clarity continues to remain similar to previous postings, with visibility ranging from 28 to 54 inches. Clearer water can be found out towards the mouth and on the main lake, while more turbid water is being located towards the back of the embayment.

As of Thursday, we located 19 radio-tagged crappie. There continues to be very little movement of both white and black crappie, as most fish were located in near identical locations as they were the previous week. Locations of black crappie continue to be scattered throughout Sledd Creek, with the bulk of black crappie being located on flats ranging in depth from 8.0 – 12.0 feet deep. White crappie are being located on deeper flats and on ledges of the secondary river channel outside of Sledd Creek. White crappie are being found in water from 12.0 – 22.0 feet deep. Most white crappie appear to be located adjacent to ledges that contain submerged structure (stakebeds and brushpiles).

[TapOut64]

Interesting find crappieken. My lake has only black crappie and right now with the lake being 6' low, if you're not in the channel you're on 12' flats. I guess I'll focus more on those areas come Saturday. Interesting as well that the fish didn't move anywhere else.

[Tom O]

I live in ludington michigan and our lakes only have black crappie and have very little luck on cranks. On the other hand brown trout and steelhead love them as do i because you can troll bandits so fast, they are also a very productive walleye bait when used with lead core line. So i don't think you wasted any of your $. the studies on depth and crappie movement is interesting most of the crappie i catch (blacks) are always suspended or close to bottom in 13 to 17' of water, very few are caught untill winter in 20'+ I'm hoping to change that with the installation of a few condos on the winter grounds. Maybe they may want to come back to in the summer warm water months.

[The Lip RIPPERS]

I dont know alot about that here on our lake , but you can work on the whites with this technique postspawn. from my experience the blacks have a more limited strike zone than a white , aditionally it seems you can get a reaction strike more readily from the whites, thus the higher catch rates on a crankbait.

[GRIZZ]

One of the things I always liked about Chautauqua is that it has very even numbers of black and white crappies. Over the last 30 yrs of fishing there I have caught thousands of both. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I have found that black and white crappies hit different presentations enough so that I use a distinctly different pattern if I know that the school I am fishing has mainly black or white crappies. In general, white crappies tend to prefer a horizontal presentation like what a crankbait presents to the fish and blacks tend to prefer the vertical presentation like a jig presents when slowly moving up and down or when under a float. Both fish surely hit both, but when I know I'm into whites I always throw jigs and retrieve through them horizontally and with blacks I try to drop a jig slowly over their heads or pull up from below past them. Basically, blacks hit the drop, whites the retrieve.

Another factor I have observed is that mature blacks seem to be more cautious, and don't hit faster moving lures as easily as white tend to. Their strike zone isn't smaller, they just take more time to hit inside the same size zone which makes them less likely hit hit a crank moving past them quickly. If you combine this tendency with those above, at least in my experience, most of the time a black won't hit a trolled crank like a white will. Seeing that I'm fishing cold water, large fish here are much older than the same size fish in the south where more people troll for crappies. Older more mature, experienced fish hit with much more caution, and crappies in particular are picky especially when they are old and have seen everything in the water and may have been caught a few times. I don't know anyone who is successful trolling for crappies in the north just like I don't know anyone that does well with roadrunners in the north. I don't think this factor differentiates between blacks and whites much except that the already cautious blacks are really cautious when they live to be old fish up north and would be even less likely to hit a crank.

[TapOut64]

Granted it's my first year pulling crank baits and I'm still learning but I've probably pulled them for somewhere around 20-30 hours and have only caught 3 crappie (my lake only has black crappie) that were in the 9" range. I guess the true test would be to go to a lake that has mostly white crappie and see how I do. Problem is, all the lakes in my immediate area are black crappie lakes. I have caught probably 20-30 white perch with the crank baits.