Additional pics from yesterday’s report 6/10/20

The first crappie that Candi caught yesterday looked sort of strange to me by the coloration of the fish but we quickly forgot about it as we started catching normal looking fish. I did catch one lone White crappie later.

We started talking about that first fish later after our trip, so I took pics of it and sent the pics to a biologist friend of mine from TWRA and I’m waiting on a comment from him. I did not clean this fish but froze it whole in case they want to look more closely as it to determine exactly what kind of rascal that we have here. It does not have the body shape of a black crappie, nor the vertical bars of the white crappie and it looks like it has 7 dorsal spines which would make it a black crappie. What do you guys think?

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Strange looking crappie. Keep us posted on what the biologist says.

DK I’m thankful you made this post about this very interesting looking crappie. I’m looking forward to what we hear back an any input from the CDC family members.
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Interesting for sure!

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Originally Posted by CUonthelake

DK I’m thankful you made this post about this very interesting looking crappie. I’m looking forward to what we hear back an any input from the CDC family members.
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I actually noticed it in this picture, but assumed it was just camera angle. Either that or I just got distracted by Candi’s beautiful smile!

:hesaid

Yes that is odd looking for sure and looks like it has some deformaties. I think I count 7 dorsal spines in the photo where the lady is holding it which means black crappie. However this would also be a candidate for a cross between black vs white or perhaps it has physical alterations for some reason. Never saw one like it though.

this is the response we got from TWRA biologists Mike Jolley

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CUonthelake

Yes that is odd looking for sure and looks like it has some deformaties. I think I count 7 dorsal spines in the photo where the lady is holding it which means black crappie. However this would also be a candidate for a cross between black vs white or perhaps it has physical alterations for some reason. Never saw one like it though.

this is the response we got from TWRA biologists Mike Jolley

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Candi ... looks like it has some spinal deformation, kinda like a lot of the little Smallmouth Bass we used to catch up on Watts Bar a few decades ago. (& I'm talking waaaay before the 18" size limit)

Almost looks like it might have some Flier genetics (the coloration & pattern) .... but, the dorsal fin count definitely says Black Crappie or Hybrid Crappie.