Thread: Black nose crappie

Originally Posted by Bigben7

Ok folks. I was not 100% correct. I thought about this one last night, and decided to look into it further. Here is the TRUE story of the "blacknose crappie". The fish was first described in the scientific community by two guys named Buchanan (the leading authority of fish identification in Arkansas) and Bryant. This does not mean discovered by any means, just described scientifically for the first time. They were describing the trait in the black crappie population in Beaver lake in northwest Arkansas. Since then, it has been found that the trait occurs naturally in no less than 13 different black crappie populations from Florida to Wisconsin.

A man by the name of Boris Gomelsky who does aquaculture research at Kentucky State University decided to find out how the trait was inherited. It was always thought to be a dominant trait, but had not been proven. His research concluded that it was in fact a dominant trait, which means that in nature usually 3/4 will show the trait, and 1/4 will not. It was also found to be on an autosomal chromosome (not a sex chromosome), and therefore is not tied to the fishes gender.

That's it. If anyone is intensely into the subject, send me a PM, and I will e-mail you a copy of the Gomelsky's journal article. Like most scientific papers, especially helpful if you have trouble falling asleep!!

Couple of questions :

1. How is it that the black stripe is a "dominant" trait, when the offspring of a Blacknose & a regular Black Crappie will not have a black stripe ?? Sounds more like a recessive gene trait, to me. And if it was a dominant trait, wouldn't most Black Crappie have it (the stripe) and the non-striped Black Crappie be the "odd" catch

2. When did this fellow say the Blacknose was discovered ? (what year?) The Florida F&W state that the first "discovery" was in OHIO in 1957 ( Fish and Wildlife Research Institute )

One other statement about Blacknose, that gets some press, is that the stripe runs down the back from mouth to tail. :rolleyes: Funny thing is, none of the pictures I've seen, nor any of the Blacknose that I've caught have a stripe that goes farther than the beginning of the dorsal fin.
Also, there are still people spreading the idea that this is a hybrid fish :o

Another supposed "myth" is that Blacknose don't fight any harder than a normal Black Crappie ... but, in most all instances of me catching one, I've pretty well known that it was a Blacknose, seconds after hookup :p ... not to mention that they are the only Crappie that I've ever caught that have jumped out of the water. And in fact, one actually jumped completely over the front of the boat I was in (Tracker TX17). There hasn't been any instance, for me, in which a White Crappie or Black Crappie has jumped out of the water ... nor has any of these two (of a comparable size) ever did as dogged a run, once hooked, as the Blacknose I've caught. And that's from 50+ years of fishing experiences !!

First time I ever saw one, was over 30yrs ago ... caught by my fishing buddy, from Watts Bar Lake, in East Tenn. Even back then, it was "called" a Arkansas Blacknose !! :D


... cp

Originally Posted by wish4fish

Fair enough. I understand that they are just blacks but with all the discussion and research on them nobody knows for sure if they get as large as the others???

I see no reason why they wouldn't get as large as any other Black Crappie in the same waters. There's nothing about them that would cause them not to !!

I think I read somewhere that ... if they mate with each other, the black stripe will be presesnt on the offspring -- but, if they mate with a regular Black Crappie, then the stripe won't be present.

At Watts Bar Lake, in East Tn, where I fish for Crappie a couple of trips per year ... I've caught Blacknose that were as big as any of the other Black Crappie I've caught there. And some lakes, like Center Hill Lake (Tenn) ... they've gotten to be the primary Crappie, and get bigger there than many of the surrounding waters that have them.

... cp