In my time I have probably filleted close to 1,000 crappie and have seen a lot of color variations and also the black marking that some have on their outside bottom lip.  Never have figured out why some have it and some don’t.  It looks like a little freshwater leech if you have never seen it.  This week we got into a good mess of crappie and I caught one with a solid line down it’s back.  For the life of me I can’t remember ever catching one with this marking.  Has anyone ever seen it?

8 minutes ago, TOXIC said:

In my time I have probably filleted close to 1,000 crappie and have seen a lot of color variations and also the black marking that some have on their outside bottom lip.  Never have figured out why some have it and some don’t.  It looks like a little freshwater leech if you have never seen it.  This week we got into a good mess of crappie and I caught one with a solid line down it’s back.  For the life of me I can’t remember ever catching one with this marking.  Has anyone ever seen it?

 

It's called a blacknose crappie. They are a genetic variant of a black crappie, not a hybrid like many people think. A couple states intentionally breed and stock them to make follow-up studies and population assessments easier. Otherwise, it does show up randomly here and there, usually comprising between 0-20% of the population. I've caught about a dozen around here over the past 30 years. Some lakes you never see them since it's a genetic trait.

In Mississippi we call them a Magnolia crappie. Here is a article on them.

 

 

https://www.ms-sportsman.com/content/in-search-of-the-magnolia-crappie-why-mdwfp-biologists-created-a-third-species-of-this-popular-panfish/