Fishy Facts

While diving in a good old Nebraska sandpit this past weekend, I had the pleasure of hovering and watching some gargantuan crappie. It's the spawning season for these fish, and they were hunkered down around the Christmas trees and tire piles. Being an outdoorsy sort along with someone who's always interested in learning something new, I decided to do a little fact-checking and see what I could learn about crappie. Here's what I discovered:

Crappie, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission's Fish Identification page on their website, are one of the top five sport fish. They're fun to catch and delicious to eat (try frying 'em in olive oil with salt, pepper, and garlic 'til they're golden brown and crispy).

There are two species of crappie, the white, pictured at left, and the black, pictured below on the right. White crappie are silvery with faint black vertical bars and 5-6 spines on the dorsal fin. Black crappie are silvery with black speckles and blotches. They usually have 7-8 spines on the dorsal fin. Males of both species become darker during the spawn, and white crappies may be mistaken for black crappies. Male black crappies can turn almost entirely black during the spawn.

The crappie is a member of the sunfish family, which includes bluegill, green sunfish, bluegill/green sunfish hybrid, largemouth bass, orangespotted sunfish, pumpkinseed, redear sunfish, rock bass, smallmouth bass, and spotted bass (all species found here in Nebraska).

Crappie depend heavily on sight, as opposed to smell, like some other fish species.

Both species of crappie eat small fish and aquatic insects. Largemouth bass, northerns, and walleye prey on crappie, but crappie also eat the young of these species.

The black crappie is more widely distributed than the white. Black crappies prefer deeper, cooler, clearer water than white crappies.

Crappies winter in deeper water and start moving up to shallower waters when the water temperature reaches 45-50 degrees. When surface temperatures reach the 62-65 degree range, crappie begin to spawn in shallower waters, often from 1-9 feet deep. During the summer, crappies move to deeper, cooler waters during the day, returning to shallower waters at dawn and dusk to feed.

During the spawn, crappies hold tight to structure like brush piles, shoreline riprap, docks, trees, and bridge pilings.

In southern Louisiana, the crappie is often called the Sac-a-lait, which is French for sack of milk. The name comes from the tasty white meat of this species.

Information for this article comes from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission website, the Minnesota DNR website, crappie.com, and jump.net/fishlist/crappie.htm.