Crappie

Identification

Black crappie carry irregular scattered speckling and seven or eight dorsal spines; white crappie show faint vertical bars and only five or six. Both have the paper-thin mouth membrane that gives them the nickname and costs you fish on a hard hookset.

Habitat & Range

Lakes, reservoirs, ponds and slow river backwaters, tight to brush, standing timber, docks and weed edges. Black crappie prefer clearer water with more vegetation and tolerate silt and murk less well than white crappie.

Native to eastern and central North America and introduced almost everywhere else in the United States.

Diet & Feeding

Zooplankton and insect larvae when small; small fish, especially shad and minnows, as adults. Chiefly a low-light feeder.

Spawning & Reproduction

Males sweep a round nest in sand or fine gravel, often in loose colonies, and guard both the nest and the young until they begin to feed. The depth is set by water clarity rather than the calendar: Missouri's agency records crappie spawning as shallow as one or two feet in stained water and as deep as twenty feet or more in exceptionally clear water.