Crappie Spawn Info

[rzrbakhunter]

So all the the crowds have got me wondering, can a lake such as Blue Mtn. handle all the fish being taken out of there and its possibly actually good for the lake to take fish from it since it does have a 9 in length limit? I've been told it has always been crowded and alot of crappie get taken from it every year. I remember as a kid going there and fishing with minnows during the spawn and catching all kinds of fish and seeing boats all over the place. So I did a little research and say on average 7,000 eggs are dropped and only 100 fish actually make the spawn with a 30% fry survival rate that's 210,000 fish. I'm sure there are more that actually do spawn but I am just curious about the actual numbers of fish that actually make it per spawn in this area? Maybe someone more educated on this matter than me will chime in?

[GreenLine]

I'm no biologist or so called expert , but I have heard they almost never recommend putting crappie in stock ponds because the populate so fast. Unless you plan to fish hard for them to keep the numbers down. My point is you can fish them real hard and they just make more

[D10]

Crappie are.prolifoc spawners. Without harvest, almost all crappie populations would be stunted. If a lake has too many good spawns in a row, the majority of the fish will be smaller (Nimrod). Research has shown that optimal crappie populations get off a good spawn once every 3 years. Biologist can examine this by looking st the residuals of a catch curve or by looking at the number of Age-1 crappie produced each year. Unfortuanlty it is almost imposible to the this kind of data and estimate the number of spawning fish there were in a given year. There are too many variables that affect the success of a spawning fish. A few variables are: correct water temperature, prey density, sunfish density, harvest rate removing males off of nests, etc...

The short answer to your original question is yes, most lakes can handle the pressure. Some lakes have a little too much pressure during certain times of the year. These lakes generally have very high exploitation rates, such as Lake Conway. If the lake also has good fast growth, it would be a good candidate for a minimum length limit. If not enough crappie were removed from these systems, we would not have optimal growth. Let's all hope that the catch-and-release mentality doesn't completely infiltrate the crappie crowd. A little doesn't hurt anything, but if too many people threw back their crappie, things would go south in a hurry. Crappie are NOT bass!

[rzrbakhunter]

Thanks D10! I'm a gluten for knowledge.

[D10]

Any time! I like sharing the knowledge when asked.

[ibmack]

Matt, if it is best to take crappie out so they will grow more, then why length limits? that seems to be counter to what you are saying. I thought it somewhat intriguing when the length limit was raised on Conway and then the catch limit was raised to 30. seems if you wanted more out, you would lower the length limit, not increase it. just curious, can't catch my limit at either number ��

[D10]

Good question, but in a situation like Conway, a minimum length limit will boost the number of larger fish by allowing the crappie to reach at least 10-in before harvest. This only works when you have good growth (Conway has excellent growth) and mortality is high. We estimated Lake Conway's total annual mortality to be around 75%, with 68% coming from harvest alone! Creel limits have very little impact on the population structure compared to length limits. It was raised to 30 state wide in an attempt to simplifiy the regulations a little. It made no sense that some of the best crappie lakes had lower creel limits than poor crappie lakes. There was no biological justification. Some new data analysis techniques are being developed that will allow us to evaluate the impact of increasing or decreasing creel limits on a population. I will be reexamining our creel limit's once I figure it all out. But think of it this way, What percentage of Lake Conway's crappie anglers harvest 20 or more crappie per trip. Not a very big percentage at all. This is the case on most lakes. You have a few CrappiePros that can flat wear them out, but the majority of us don't regularly catch 20 keepers in a trip. So raising the creel limit to 30 wont make much of an impact because very few anglers could catch 20 keepers. Does this make sense?

[rzrbakhunter]

As a manufacturing engineer I am constantly looking at data to improve processes. D10 is any of this data or research public and if so how would someone find it? Some people refuse to trust data but I have seen it work before and know the AGFC will use it correctly to continuously improve our fisheries.

[D10]

As a manufacturing engineer I am constantly looking at data to improve processes. D10 is any of this data or research public and if so how would someone find it? Some people refuse to trust data but I have seen it work before and know the AGFC will use it correctly to continuously improve our fisheries.

It is all public. Send me an email (found on my signature below) and I will send you the Crappie Exploitation Study Report. Thanks.

[rzrbakhunter]

It is all public. Send me an email (found on my signature below) and I will send you the Crappie Exploitation Study Report. Thanks.

Email sent, thanks again!