Читать книгу Fishing For Dummies - Greg Schwipps - Страница 91

Crappies fight well on light tackle and can taste great. They tend to school, so catching one is a good sign of things to come. Crappies might grow to nearly 20 inches and 5 pounds, but that would truly be a monster specimen. There are white crappies and black crappies, and although both are common, the white crappie is more widespread. Both species are popular with anglers all over North America because they bite eagerly on all kinds of bait and small lures (see Chapters 11 and 12 for more on bait and lures). Minnows work well for crappies because adults usually feed on small fish, although they won’t pass up insects and crustaceans. Crappies do well in a variety of waters and prefer the silted, slow-moving water found in ponds and reservoirs throughout the country.

If you catch a crappie, you can quickly tell which kind you have by looking at its dorsal fin. Check out Figure 4-1 and consider the following:

 Black crappies have seven or eight dorsal spines. They prefer cooler, clearer water. As the name suggests, they’re a little darker, and the speckles on their sides are spread throughout, not in noticeable bars.

 White crappies have a maximum of six dorsal spines. White crappies also are more barred on their sides.

© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

FIGURE 4-1: Notice the subtle differences between the black (a) and white (b) crappies.