Should I admit that I’m not a big fan of fish. Yes and I scuba dive. I’ve even been known to feed the fish. But anyway with summer approaching and the Memorial Day Weekend dive approaching we thought it might be fun to educate on the underwater life seen at Beaver Lake. First up is the Crappie.
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Crappie Fish. (alternative spellings: Croppie/Crappé)
- Crappie fish are popular North American freshwater game fish.
- Their name derives from Canadian French Crapet.
- Other names that they are known as are papermouths, strawberry bass, speckled bass or specks (especially in Michigan), speckled perch, calico bass (throughout New England), sac-a-lait (in southern Louisiana), and Oswego bass.
If you would like to get extremely scientific they come from the family Centrarchidae (sunfishes) in the order Perciformes (perch-like fishes).
Crappies break down into two types, Black and White.
Black:
- Silvery with a color pattern that is mainly irregularly arranged speckles and blotches (not vertical bars)
- The dorsal fin has 7 or 8 spines
- Popular panfish that are deep bodied and strongly compressed laterally (slab sided)
- The upper jaw is long, reaching well past the middle of the eye.
- Two sections of the dorsal fin (spiny forepart and soft-rayed rear part) are broadly connected, without a notch between
- The anal fin is nearly as long and large as the dorsal fin; has 6 spines
- Upper surface of the head and forward part of the back are strongly concave.
White:
- Silver with 5-10 often faint, dark vertical bars
- The dorsal fin has 6 spines
- Popular panfish that are deep bodied and strongly compressed laterally (slab-sided)
- The upper jaw is long, reaching well past the middle of the eye
- Two sections of the dorsal fin (spiny forepart and soft-rayed rear part) are broadly connected, without a notch between
- Anal fin is nearly as long and large as the dorsal fin; 6 spines
- Upper surface of the head and forward part of the back is strongly concave.
Size: Both species range 9-10 inches long and seldom exceed 14 inches long. Usually weigh up to about 4 lbs.
- World Record
- Black: 5lb (2.25kg)
- White: 5.2lb (2.35kg)
Habitat/Life Cycle:
- Occupy open water with submerged timber or aquatic vegetation in standing water bodies and slow-flowing backwaters of large rivers.
- During the day they are less active and hang out around weed beds or submerged in objects.
- They spawn in the spring, mid-March to the end of May.
- Water temps usually need to be around 55˚F.
- While spawning, they prefer stained or muddy water so they can come as close up as 1-2 feet but in exceptionally clear water they’ll be out toward 20 feet.
- Post-spawn (September) they stay in brush 15-20 feet of water about 10-15 feet down.
- Crappie generally live 4 years but can survive 8 or more years.
One more piece of information… They are highly regarded game fish – best tasting freshwater fish so with that knowledge, let me give you this link to the MO Dept of Conservation Recipes: http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/cooking/fish-recipes
Information collected:
Missouri Department of Conservation
- http://mdc.mo.gov/fishing/fishing-how-tos/crappie-fishing
- http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/black-crappie
- http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/white-crappie
Wikipedia