The big crappies going be in a school of their own?

[icefishingOhionut]

When icefishing for crappies do the big crappies tend to stay in a school of their own or they in with the smaller crappies also?

[Swift]

Just on the waters I fish.............the Big ones tend to do their own thing. They may mix in with their little brothers if something major is going on food wise, but seem to have a different food/size/location preference most of the time. More likely to find really Big 'gills mixed in rather than smaller Crappies. The Big 'gills seem to feed more like a Crappie than a smaller 'gill as well for me

[addicted to ice fishing]

It seems like a lot of timed they do tend to r0n with other crappies their size

[slipperybob]

A lot of times it's a year class thing and they tend to stick with the same year class.  So when they're big, a lot of them are also.  At other times, the big ones belong to a different year class and they're few a far in between.  I usually don't find them with the small crappies at all.  There may be a few of them here or there.  Hardly do I ever find them schooling more than that.

[huntaholic]

Never payed attention to it, but noticed it last week. Almost everything under 10" we caught was mixed in with gills. All of the bigger fish came in small groups of 3 or less fish being marked at a time.