Classifying lake, river, and reservoir types is important because crappies in hill-land reservoirs in the South behave much the same as crappies in hill-land reservoirs in the North, East, or West. Crappies react differently in small, cloudy ponds and natural lakes, feeding at different times and in different areas than they do in large impoundments. But crappies in small, cloudy lakes in the North behave much the same as crappies in similar environments in the South.

When combined with the Calendar Periods, In-Fisherman’s lake classification system helps fine-tune and pinpoint crappie location throughout the year. It also serves as a basis for communication. When anglers from the same general region discuss crappie fishing over the phone, with one catching crappies from an oligotrophic lake in Minnesota while the other is fishing a deep impoundment in Wisconsin, they’re really comparing apples and oranges. Without a classification system, the conversation produces more questions than answers.

The ability to classify lakes, rivers, and reservoirs is another critical concept that helps anglers understand the structural makeup of different bodies of water. Similar patterns emerge for finding crappies, as well. Classifying different waters helps anglers note similarities and differences in fish behavior in differing environments and place them within a defined context. After catching crappies from a canyon reservoir for many years, an angler might be surprised how differently they behave in a middle-aged natural lake. The depths crappies use, the structure they seek out, the forage they prefer, and many other factors, will vary. And, if these two lakes are geographically close, anglers can confirm how differently the Calendar Periods play out within these two very different bodies of water. Some crappies in a canyon reservoir probably remain in Prespawn even as the lake fish are following Presummer patterns. Deep, clear lakes warm much more slowly in spring than shallower lakes, which have higher counts of plankton and more suspended particles that catch sunlight and give off energy in the form of heat.

Surprisingly, the thousands of lakes, rivers, and reservoirs across North America fall somewhat neatly into little more than a dozen categories, relatively easy to grasp and remember, with use. Plan your work and work your plan, yes. But first, the plan has to work. Learning lake categories is the second step in our process of pinpointing patterns, even before the boat gets wet.

The Adaptable crappie

Black and white crappie have adapted to and have thrived in a great variety of waters; they do best when these environments offer moderately clear, fairly warm water with plenty of oxygen. But they turn up in brackish estuaries, mucky prairie lakes, and stone-walled mining pits. They thrive among alligators in tropical lakes, and in water that’s frozen over five months a year.

This adaptability is one of the most attractive attributes of the crappie. Wherever you are, a slab isn’t far away. Thanks to stocking, they occur in every state but Alaska and Hawaii, absent only in the Rocky Mountains and some arid regions of the Great Plains.