I live on Lake Graham(West of Ft. Worth) and have been fishing the crappie house on the Lake for 5 or so years. Up until 2 weeks ago nobody that I know has ever caught one of the crappie with the black stripe like they have in East Texas. Now we have caught 5 in 2 weeks. All are 6 to 8 inches long. My question is where did they come from all of a sudden. TPWD hasn't done any stocking other than Hybrid bass in several years. Anybody have any ideas?

Johnny

My guess is that genetic mutation was in the fish, and it just found the right male and female to show it's dominate trait. Or, someone or something could have released some fish in there, you never know. I like catching them, pretty good fighters, and a cool looking fish.
But then again, could be some old dude with a marker marking fish.
I fished Lake Graham once, didn't do very well, need to get back out there.

It's most likely a Magnolia crappie and I see a good number in Ray Roberts and a few in Lewisville from time to time. They are a cross between a white and a black and are sterile. They do stock them in some lakes but most likely happens naturally in lakes here. Hope this helps.

I've had about 4-5 at Fork in the last 6 months,..

http://www.crappiecrazy.com/article/blackstriped-hybrid-magnolia-crappie/
Check out this link for a description of the various crappie. I'm not sure if TPWD has ever stocked any Magnolia (Hybrid), so I'm thinking these are Black Nose Crappie. JMO.

Iv caught several of them on pines, never any big ones. Usually 6-8 inches like you said. Oddly its the only lake I fish where I've caught them. Maybe someone will chime in on where they cone from.

Almost certainly black nosed...I have 15"ers in my stock tank...and they are feistier than other crappie in my opinion. They are black crappie w a genetic mutation. Pretty fish. Magnolia I think are a hybrid and different from black nosed.

Caught some that were 12" and 13" on the Brazos.

My guess would be the fish got there from the big floods in late 2015 early 2016. May have been some in some stock tanks or small private lakes that made their way to Graham. Black crappie showed up in Lake Belton a few years ago and flood runoff is about the only possible cause.

I truly believe that these fish occur naturally. Every lake around here has a least a few black crappie in them and that is all it takes to get a blacknose. Although, I had a buddy catch a white crappie blacknose a couple months back which was the first I had ever seen.

I second that fishinaholic...been catchin em in the Pedernales and Buchanan forever. Caught some in Travis. I am sure they are in LBJ as well.

It's a black crappie with a recessive gene that cause the black nose AKA "Mohawk"
I've caught them a lot out at Leon.
Weatherford has a few in it as well .
Pretty cool looking fish.

I caught one in PK a while back with a Slab while striper fishing. It was over 13" and was pretty fat.

THAT friends and neighbors is the world famous Texas Racing Crappie! If you turn him sideways he has a 3 painted on his side. Introduced to Texas lakes by Dale Earnhardt back in 1978.

We caught 3 more this week so that 9 now in about a month. The one I caught today was about 6 or 7 inches long.