Crappie biology

We been practicing catch and trash on the white crappie in our little acre and a half bass and blue gill pond. I decide to "field dress" some to day and see what the have been eating.

I had 4 fish to work with. two bigger fatter one 9 to 10 inches and two smaller 7 inch fish.

This year is my first year with crappie, I don't know much about them.

The bigger fish must be females, they were full of roe.

They have s small abdominal cavity compared to trout and pike I caught. One female and one male had in I what think was there stomach, what looked like textured mud. I have no idea what is was. The other two I could not clearly identify their stomachs.

Is there a way to sex these fish?

You can "sex them" easily by cleaning them. Egg sacs vs milt sacs are easily distinguished. Otherwise, it's kinda hard to tell, other than when they have their spawning colors displayed ... the males will have darker black pigment & it'll cover a greater area of their bodies.

That "mucky mud" stomach content is likely the fry or young of the other species in the pond, or perhaps even bugs/critters mixed in with bottom debris.