black, white, specks?????

[David Waters]

What do most of you look for when judging if a crappie is a white crappie or a black crappie? Everywhere I fish here locally has both. SOmetimes it is really easy to tell, but what exactly is a speck? A black crappie?

Look at this picture of a catch from earlier in January. THe fish in the top left is obviously a white crappie. The lateral lines are very evident. Then, a crappie right under is very speckled, which makes me think it is a black crappie. Is that also a speck?

[crappieken]

David - count the spines on the dorsal fin - the white crappie will have five or six and the black crappie will have seven or eight.

[DENNIS BOWERS]

David-as Posted By Crappieken Thats The Easiest Way To Tell !"specks" Is A Nickname Given To Crappie In General..a.k.a.--papermouth,white Perch,ect.here On Dale Hollow We Also Have Blacknose Crappie--they Have A Black "racing Stripe" Down Their Back,and Alot Of Black From Gills Forward!!talk About Fighters!!!!good Fishin To Ya!!!dennis

[Moose1am]

Two more things you can look at to tell them apart. The lenght of the dorsal (Top) fin is equal to the length from the eye to the front of the dorsal fin on a black crappie. One the white crappie the length from the eye to the front of the dorsal fin is longer than the length of the dorsal fin.
And sometimes but not always the white crappie have their spots arranged in vertical bars that run along the side of the fish. This is not a fool proof way to tall the two species apart as sometimes the White Crappie can look more like black crappie. Most of the time the black crappies spots are not arranged in vertical bars but are more randomly spaced along the side of the fish.

The best way to tell them apart is the count the number of Dorsal Spines as was mentioned below.

David - count the spines on the dorsal fin - the white crappie will have five or six and the black crappie will have seven or eight.

[CrappiePappy]

a "speck" is a Crappie .... generally a Black Crappie, but White Crappie are also called by that name. The White Crappie seem to get the "perch" variation nicknames (Bachelor Perch, White Perch, Strawberry Perch/Bass). There are several other "nicknames" or regional names, that are used to refer to either or both species of Crappie ... like "Newlight", Calico Bass, Sac-a-lait, etc.

In your pic - it would appear (to me) that the top two, the one under the first one, and the one on the bottom middle .... are all White Crappie. There seems to be the V shaped "bands" coming down the sides on these. The rest have the "speckled" or "blotched" black markings of a Black Crappie - and no discernable bands coming off the backs and down the sides. Even White Crappie may have some black "specks" on their sides and down towards their bellies ... but, haven't seen any Black Crappie with any "band" or V shaped coloration coming down their sides. Of course, there is always the possibility of "crossbreeds" .... which may have markings of both. And there's always the "Blacknose Crappie - a Black Crappie with a black line running from under the bottom lip, up between the eyes, to the top fin. They're not a "crossbreed" or "hybrid", per se, but actually a Black Crappie with a genetic marker gene.

In the Spring spawning season, when the males put on their "tuxedos" (to impress the ladies) .... it can sometimes be a little tough to distinguish White Crappie males from Black Crappie males. Some can get almost entirely black, head to tail. The females of both species are a little easier to distinguish. But, counting spines is probably the only "foolproof" method, when the coloration and patterning isn't enough. ........luck2ya ....cp