Outdoors
Published: Dec 29, 2006
Pomoxis nigromaculatus got stuck with an unattractive name, to be sure. Would you want to eat anything that was designated "crappie" from the get-go?
Maybe that's why most Florida anglers refer to black crappie as "speckled perch." In fact, the critters are thoroughly speckled and their taste is a match for that finest of northern species, the perch.
Whatever you call them, they are the state's favorite panfish. And from now through March it's usually easy to collect more than enough for a big-league fish fry.
Anglers used to the rather stingy limits on saltwater species these days might find the liberal bag on specks (25 per day) surprising, but biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission say the species does best when there's lots of harvest. Otherwise, the prolific spawners might overpopulate, eat up the available forage and produce a stunted population of starving fish that's of little use.
Specks are widely recognized as being among Florida's best-tasting fish. I would trade a dozen for a fillet of hog snapper, to be sure, but there's little else that comes close to the perch. They live in open water and eat only grass shrimp and minnows, so they never have the muddy taste common to largemouth bass in some waters.
They don't get very large. The typical size is around 10 inches long and three-quarters of a pound, though they occasionally exceed 3 pounds and the record is a bit more than 5.
Specks are quick and easy to clean. In fact, some Old Florida folks still leave the fins on the carcasses, deep-fry the whole thing, then eat the fins like potato chips. The hot oil crisps the thin rays, making them edible.
Specks gather in large schools in open water from December into late March. In late March and through April, they move to shoreline cover to spawn. Catching them in open water is easy and it's a family affair, making it especially appealing around the holidays.
It's possible to load a pontoon boat with eight or 10 anglers, find a school of fish in open water, and keep the poles bent for hours in drift after drift. Children love it.
Just about every larger lake in the state has tons of specks. But the top 10, as recommended by the conservation commission, are Lake Marian east of Haines City, Lake Trafford southeast of Fort Myers, Lake Monroe near Sanford, lakes Okeechobee and Kissimmee on the Kissimmee River chain in the central part of the state, Lake Jessup in Seminole County, Lake Woodruff on the St. Johns River, Lake Istokpoga near Sebring, Tenoroc Preserve near Lakeland and Lake Talquin near Tallahassee.
Other lakes where I've had a lot of success include Lake Panasoffkee, Crescent Lake, Toho and East Lake Toho, and Lake George. Anglers are catching good numbers on Lake Tarpon in Pinellas County as well.
Catching specks in open water is mostly a matter of locating them, and the way to do that is to use a depthfinder. You run the deepest water in the lake, typically eight to 15 feet, looking for schools of shad, which show up as shadow-like masses on the screen. Most anglers put out buoy markers in areas where they locate several schools of shad, then troll between them to catch their specks.
Trolling success requires slow speed; 3 mph is about the max, and slower is often better. This means it's best to troll on an electric trolling motor, or sometimes just to drift with the wind.
The best bait is usually what's known as a Missouri minnow, a commercially raised minnow about two inches long. These are fished on size 4 or 6 hooks, with enough weight to keep them just off bottom. Many anglers use two or three baited hooks per rig, and often get doubleheaders.
Specks also readily take artificials.
The Hal Fly jig is one of the best, and they also love Potgut Minnows, Beetle Spins and other tiny lures - typically one-thirty-second to one-sixteenth ounce. Yellow, white and chartreuse are usually the most productive colors, and the lures usually are fished on very light line so they'll penetrate to near bottom and have good action; 6-pound test is about the max.
Most anglers prefer mono to microfiber for specks, which have delicate mouths and plenty of stretch.
Some anglers do especially well by combining live bait and lures. A minnow on a jig is a hard offering to beat.
Whatever the offering, if you get it near bottom and in front of the fish, odds are the specks will cooperate. It's usually just a matter of keeping plenty of hooks in the water and moving until you hit the mother lode.
The fish do everything from that point on, short of hopping into the pot of grease on their own.
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