Thread: Baby Sized Crappie

At 3" ... I would suspect them to be last years spawn.

... cp

Yes for sure not this years! Guess they are hiding out still so they don't become another fish's dinner, LOL! Actually I would have thought last years should be larger, but I really have never looked at what's normal for crappie. Maybe I should!

just read about the 2" & 3" crappie caught in December on some lake, had to have been a fall spawn and would have happened between the first and 4th week of Oct. at least I think that is what it said, my internet on my iPad if weak to say the least! My Wifi router is too far for this. Anyway it seems that 2 months or a little longer they can be 3".

Originally Posted by skiptomylu

Yes for sure not this years! Guess they are hiding out still so they don't become another fish's dinner, LOL! Actually I would have thought last years should be larger, but I really have never looked at what's normal for crappie. Maybe I should!

just read about the 2" & 3" crappie caught in December on some lake, had to have been a fall spawn and would have happened between the first and 4th week of Oct. at least I think that is what it said, my internet on my iPad if weak to say the least! My Wifi router is too far for this. Anyway it seems that 2 months or a little longer they can be 3".

Skip ... you may have been reading the In-Fisherman article from 2012. about Orange Lake Florida having a Fall spawn that was documented scientifically. There's been "reports" but no scientific documentation until the FFWCC did that study.

Texas Crappie must have it good, if they can grow 3" in a couple of months .... the avg growth rate is 3" in the 1st year, here in most KY waters ... and NC says their Crappie "can grow" as much as 4" per year under ideal conditions. I couldn't find any articles/studies on Crappie growth rates in Texas ... but, I doubt they can grow that fast. But ... stranger things have happened !!

... cp

I don't doubt that cp and I did see that article which did surprise me. I was thinking it seemed a lot for 2+ months they would get that big, but I do t know how big our crappie get in a year, but it would not surprise me if they don't get larger than 3" with all the Shad in this lake. I have never fished in Ky so don't know about your waters for sure. Heck I have no clue about lake Levingston either since most of my adult fishing life has been on this lake except for the 11 years I lived near Corpus and went salt water for that time. So my entire knowledge comes from fishing Toledo Bend and I know this lake has so much food for the fish it's just crazy full of shad. When night fishing here you can get a huge ball of shad circling areound your light and at time the circle with be as wide as you boat is long.

so I see it like this, with all this food I wouldn't doubt that our crappie get more than 3" their first year. On the other side it wouldn't surprise me if 3" is what it would be here as well. I just think if in Florida they can reach 3" in 2 months then we shouldn't be so far behind. However the caviat in this for me is in that article I am not so sure how they would know the fish spawned 2 months before and maybe it was longer than that?

I do know we have bass that had to come from this years spawn that are close to 4" long because me neighbor while fishing with me caught 2 really small bass that to me looked like theynwere 3"-4" long. I dont know if they would have spawned 2 months or longer ago? Now I know bass grow faster than crappie, but am also sure these 2 bass didn't come from last years spawn. I also know something that most don't know, when this lake was new and still full of new flooded trees, some of the bass would spawn in 40' of water depth. The lay their eggs in the limbs of the trees, LOL!


Skip

Skip ... according to the article, the "scientific documentation" was doing the otolith ring count, where they take that "ear bone" out of the fish and measure it to determine age.

I don't know as the amount of Shad in a lake is any indication of fast growth in the first few months ... since those fry/fingerlings don't eat "fish", but subsist on the various forms of plankton critters swimming around in the water.

I have noticed that the studies I've read seem to indicate that Crappie do grow faster in the first two years (several inches per year) and then slow to 1-2" per year by the time they get into their third year and beyond. I just can't seem to find any info on Texas or Fla. growth rates in the first year.
I guess since nobody is interested in catching a 3" Crappie, there just isn't any reason to know how fast they get to that size (except maybe by the biologists publishing papers & articles)

... cp

LOL, that's for sure, but I have caught a few that were probably that small or close. I didn't take note of when in the year that was, but am thinking mid summer maybe. There is so much food at all levels here it pretty remarkable. We are lucky here that we do get a good number of 14" and 15" crappie and every once in a while a 17" or even better will show up. It's a shame o have never fished many other lakes even in Texas, but just love this area and the 2 lakes here in the middle of a National Forrest and since moving here on TB, I don't even go over to Sam Rayburn and it's only like 25 miles away, LOL!

I looked also and can't really find any good info on growth rate either and it's like they just zone in on words in the search and probably because no one has done that or didn't put the info on the net.

Skip