A Lunch date

[Ketchn]

thanks so much for the nice comments and reads yawl ....
it is my pleasure for sure to tell fish stories ....
glad yawl enjoy them

[Cray]

Love your stories, keep them coming.

[cause]

Good story and excellent photos. enjoyed the read.
In the photos, the fourth one down from the top on the left hand side, is that a trick of the lighting or is that a black nose crappie with the black strip from the dorsal to the lips?
If that is a black nose crappie, is that typical of what you usually catch?

[Ketchn]

my photos display different on my computer but i would assume you are talking about the fish with the black stripe down the front . I ketch them in some spots pretty often and in other spots i never see them . i hear they are a genetic coloration thing found only in the black crappie . a recessive pigmentation gene i think is what they call it . Cedar creek lake is loaded with them and we find them often in other lakes as well. i always thought they were possibly a third strain of crappie but have read and been told thats not the case. one thing for sure the "mohawks" (what i kawl them) hit like a freight train everytime and fight rather well also . i almost didnt get to take a photo of the larger one as it went around several different logs and was fighting like a black bass minus the jumps ...
these 2 came from Lake Worth near downtown Ft Worth
here is another photo of a smaller one i managed on that lunch date as well ....
and YES sir they are some mighty handsome fish

[CrappiePappy]

You are, indeed, correct sir !! Blacknose Black Crappie it is

And while some argue whether it's a dominant or recessive genetic trait, it is simply a pigmentation array that creates the black stripe. It's not a hybrid or crossbreed, though crossbreeding does happen naturally (on occasion) just like the crossbreeding of a White & Black Crappie sometimes does. And biologists have used Blacknose to produce hybrids, like the Magnolia Crappie (sterile triploid).

Like you, I perceive them as "harder hitting" & "harder fighting" than a normal Black Crappie, and have even had them leap completely out of the water upon hookset. This "leaping" has occurred on a couple of occasions, once in which the fish of about 1.5lbs jumped clear across the bow of a Tracker TX17. Easily a 8ft distance from exit point to re-entry point in the water, and a good 3ft in the air It was exciting enough to have caught a 1.5lb Crappie, at that time, but the aerial acrobatics has greatly enamored me toward this particular fish.

... cp

[cause]

and YES sir they are some mighty handsome fish

Very cool.
Being rather new to Crappie fishing, I have been reading and researching the crap out of this fish. A recent thread about a Golden Crappie got me looking at other variety and I found this article on the Internet.

Do You Know Your Crappie? - Wired2fish - Scout

I must say I like your photo of the fish better than the ones in the article. It is much clearer and easier to see the distinct strip.

You are, indeed, correct sir !! Blacknose Black Crappie it is

Like you, I perceive them as "harder hitting" & "harder fighting" than a normal Black Crappie, and have even had them leap completely out of the water upon hookset. This "leaping" has occurred on a couple of occasions, once in which the fish of about 1.5lbs jumped clear across the bow of a Tracker TX17. Easily a 8ft distance from exit point to re-entry point in the water, and a good 3ft in the air It was exciting enough to have caught a 1.5lb Crappie, at that time, but the aerial acrobatics has greatly enamored me toward this particular fish.

... cp

Thanks for the info and that sounds pretty exciting?