What's up with the coloration?

[DannyBoy]

If you look at the 2nd crappie from the left it is much darker than the the one to its left, and the rest of them for that matter, it's face is black compared to the lighter faces of most of the others and it's body is also much much darker. The picture doesn't really show it like the sun does but you can kinda tell. We caught 5 dark ones like that. I know they are all Black Crappie because the have either 7 or 8 dorsal spines while White Crappie will have 6. Also I know that White Crappies have distinctive vertical stripes on them. So my question is why would fish of the same species, in the same pond, caught side-by-side, differ in color so much? What would make them so dark?

 

[Iowa1]

Males in full spawning colors are really black like that.

 

[muddy]

Natural variation in color is very common, even in the same body of water. I've seen it in crappies (both species) many times. Good eats right there.

 

[THA4]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Iowa1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Males in full spawning colors are really black like that. </div></div>

agreed

 

[Typical250]

Danny you know that most males are darker than the famales....... but the reason is structure. Like a goby, they will adapt to there color enviornment... up north they will have a different look... deep water lots of cover, so they will get a darker look... Just like the bigge the lake the more there body will change! Go to big creek and catch a crappie.... normal, ..... go to red rock and they average 13- 17" .. they are much weirder looking... mouths are huge and they just dont look like crappies..... i guess im saying structure and enviornment!.............. Why do walleyes turn dark in Tea colored water?????????????

 

[DannyBoy]

I know they're darker, but I've never seen them BLACK like that, not once in the 6 years I've been fishing that pond, you know which one /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif . And the water is clear as crystal most of the time!!! I dunno, not even any of the fish bio classes I've taken could help me explain that, so I thought I'd throw it out there.

 

[sofakingfast_1]

Its definitly the Female-Male color variation. The male crappie is much darker. Alot of people think the male crappie are always smaller than the female but they dont vary in size much. I didnt realize it until i did a little reading about crappie spawn a few weeks ago. My buddy called me this morning and said the crappie are starting to go shallow to spawn.He landed 31 today. Ive got my 12 foot brush pile rig ready to go. Took Friday off work. Crappie time!

 

[DannyBoy]

Tear em' up then. We just slaughtered em in the short amount of time we had with 1/16 oz. white jigs and small white twister tails. So much funner once the plastic is in the mix...