Is there a behavioral or taste difference in black crappie and white crappie. Hear a lot of guys say "caught a few whites" etc. Is one a native crappie vs the other. Just curious to pick the brain some of you crappie buffs.

Thanks

never noticed a taste diffence. The whites are larger,in weight. forgot state record, but fork record is 3.55. Seems more black ones in lakes say e. of dallas. Im in N. gar.

Taste difference no, behavioral difference yes, black crappie prefer clearer waters and oftentimes are found on different structure types than white crappie, I catch a lot of black crappie on rocky structure. Black crappie also spawn at just slightly cooler water temperatures. In rivers with heavy current it’s common to find more white crappie as they’re more tolerant of current. I find black crappie to be more aggressive, they’re also a little bit larger per length than a white crappie because they’re a little bit more saucer shaped, the whites are a little longer and skinnier. My understanding is Black crappie can sometimes be bigger insect and crawfish eaters while the whites tend to be purely fish eaters. East Texas lakes do tend to have more black crappie, but lavon and hubbard here in north Texas have a bunch too.

I fished Cedar creek 20 years ago til a few years ago. At the beginning I am guessing 90 percent were black crappie . Over the years whhite crappie kept creeping up . just before i move=d east i would say it was close to 60 percent black and closer to 40 percent whites. I have read nemerous books about water clarity, rocky bottom versus mud, silt . But no real reson the tables turn. I feel that whites are longer blacks are stockier and better fighters. I cant tell a difference taste wise. same color jig body caught both

This is interesting, lavon has gone the opposite direction. Even 5-6 years ago you caught one black crappie for probably every 50 white crappie, right now I’m catching about a 50/50 split.

They taste the same as stated but they definitely act differently. In lakes that have both of them, you can target each type individually. Whites tend to be on the vertical cover such as timber. Blacks tend to be more on bottom cover such as brush and rocks. The lakes that have had more and more blacks have lakes upstream of them that have blacks in them. This happened to Lewisville as well. Ray bob has blacks and they have slowly made their way into the lake and it takes a few years for them to establish themselves. Cedar creek is interesting as I am not sure of anyplace upstream that has whites that would be coming in. I have also noticed that blacks tend to peck more at boats than whites. These are just some things that I have noticed over the years. Blacks also fight way better than whites.

Great info for us bass fishing refugees!

I am no expert , pretty much fish only Palestine. We have both species , I catch way more whites than blacks.

good luck
MO

I am no expert , pretty much fish only Palestine. We have both species , I catch way more whites than blacks.

good luck
MO

I fished Palestine with Slew last June and he could tell if a fish was a white or black on Livescope before we caught them based on how they were positioned in the timber, the depth they were holding and how they looked on the screen. I was impressed.

Jason

YES there is a behavioral difference! How they taste depends upon YOU.

That’s incredible, I can barely operate helix 9’s