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Differences of a White Crappie vs. Black Crappie (WHITE CRAPPIE)
White Crappie - Pomoxis annularis
Species overview: Today the white crappie is found throughout Pennsylvania. It has been widely introduced around the United States. Biologists believe it was native to the Mississippi and Great Lakes watersheds, but not originally in Atlantic Coast watersheds. In Pennsylvania, the white crappie is less common than its cousin, the black crappie, but it is found across the state. The white crappie has a tendency sometimes to overpopulate its home waters, resulting in stunted fish. The species name “annularis” means “having rings,” and probably refers to the bars on the side of the fish’s body.
Identification: White crappies are wide when viewed from the side, but very compressed when observed head-on. They are olive to bright-green on the back, and silvery, with greenish or yellow hints, on the sides. The sides have about eight to 10 vertical, dark, broken bars, and other mottling. Dark spots or dark wavy lines pattern the dorsal, anal and tail fins. Males during the breeding season become darker. The white crappie is the only member of the sunfish family that has five or six spines on its dorsal fin, and a corresponding five or six spines on its anal fin. Its usual size is six to 12 inches long, but fish of 15 inches and several pounds are not uncommon. The white crappie has a large mouth, but the membrane behind the lips is thin and tears easily. This gives the fish its nickname, “papermouth.”
Habitat: White crappies live in lakes, ponds and sluggish sections of streams and rivers. They tolerate, and seem to prefer, silted, turbid conditions. The fish isn’t a bottom-dweller, but it does like cover, such as submerged brush, logs, stumps and tree roots. It doesn’t need the cooler, clear waters with hard, clean bottoms that black crappies prefer, and it doesn’t associate with underwater vegetation as much as the black crappie.
Life history: The white crappie spawns in late spring and early summer, May to June, when water temperatures are a little under 60 to a little over 70 degrees. The nests are about a foot in diameter and are located in water deeper than the nests of most other sunfishes, up to eight or 10 feet. White crappie nests may be solitary or in colonies of as many as 50, located two to four feet apart. The male white crappie comes to the breeding grounds first, where he constructs a nest by fanning his fins over plant roots and submerged brush, or over gravel and small stones. When white crappies live in streams and rivers, they spawn in protected areas, such as coves or slow, deep pools. Females produce from 10,000 to as many as 160,000 eggs, depending on their age and size. They spawn in the nests of several males throughout the breeding season. Hatching takes two to five days, depending on the water temperature. The male guards the nest until the fry disperse. Young white crappies eat small aquatic insects and zooplankton.
White crappie populations can fluctuate. During a good year, when spawning and food conditions are right, many white crappies survive. This brood dominates the population for several years until the spawn of another good year can survive and become the next dominant year-class. Then the pattern repeats. This explains why anglers catch large crappies for several years and then almost none or only small fish.
White crappies eat crayfish, leeches, crustaceans, insects and, most especially, small fish. Fish are the largest part of its diet. Because it is so prolific, white crappie populations may sometimes become overcrowded and outstrip their food supply, causing slow-growing, small individuals. Although the crappie’s mouth opens wide for prey, it is caught best on small minnows, lures and jigs, and it can be taken on streamers and weighted nymphs, fished like jigs.
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Differences of a White Crappie vs. Black Crappie (BLACK CRAPPIE)
Black Crappie - Pomoxis nigromaculatus
Species overview: The black crappie closely resembles its cousin, the white crappie, but has physical and habitat differences. The range of the black crappie has been expanded through introduction. Originally it was found in the Mississippi watershed and eastern North America, and not present along the Atlantic Coast north of the Carolinas. Today in Pennsylvania it is widely distributed around the state. Its species name “nigromaculatus” means “black-spotted.” The black crappie’s nicknames are sometimes the same as those of the white crappie, and they include “calico bass,” “crappie bass” and “papermouth,” for its thin mouth tissues.
Identification: On first impressions, the black crappie looks black and white, but on closer examination it shows iridescent colors and sheens. Viewed from the front, its body is very compressed, narrow from side to side. Viewed from the side, it is deep-bodied, not as long-looking in its proportions as the white crappie. The back is olive to bright metallic-green, or a bluish gray. On its silvery sides are dark spots that are scattered or that appear in indistinct horizontal rows, not in vertical rows, as on the white crappie. There are also splotches that make a wavy pattern on its dorsal, anal and caudal fins. One way to distinguish the black crappie from the white is to count the spines on its dorsal fins. The black crappie has seven or eight spines on its dorsal fin. The white crappie has only five or six dorsal spines. Black crappies that live in clear, vegetated water have darker contrasting patterns on the body, while those from murkier water are lighter, appearing more “bleached.”
Habitat: The black crappie prefers waters that are clearer and cooler than those inhabited by the white crappie. The black crappie lives among more aquatic vegetation. It’s a fish of quiet ponds and small lakes, the shallower areas of large lakes, and the slow-flowing sections of rivers, where it is almost always associated with underwater weeds. Black crappies are not as tolerant of silted water as white crappies, so they have probably been replaced by the white crappie where aquatic habitat has been made muddy by human influence.
Life history: Black crappies spawn in the spring or early summer, when water temperatures reach 66 to 68 degrees. Like other sunfish, the males clean dish-shaped nests on the bottom, near or among underwater plants in three to six feet of water. The nests are eight to 15 inches in diameter, in colonies, but spaced five to six feet apart. A half-pound black crappie female produces from 20,000 to 50,000 eggs, and may spawn in the nest of more than one male. The males guard the nest and eggs, which hatch in three to five days. The males protect the hatched fry for a short time, until the young fish leave the nest. Immature crappies eat tiny crustaceans and aquatic insects and grow fast, to about 3 1/2 inches the first year and to eight inches the second year. It usually takes four years for black crappies to reach 12 inches, and the fish may grow to 16 inches long, making them one of our largest panfishes. They mature in two years. As they grow, black crappie food preferences change to eating other fish, but as adults they also feed on mayflies, midges, dragonflies, other aquatic insects and crustaceans.
Black crappies are school fish, traveling, feeding and spawning in a group. They feed most actively early in the morning and late at night. Black crappies continue to feed during the winter, which makes them popular with ice anglers. Minnow imitations and live minnows work well for catching black crappies.
