Quote Originally Posted by dlsloan View Post
1 was just wondering why there seem to be so many dinks in lake shawnee, any input will be appreciated thanks
dlsloan,

I contacted Richard Sanders KDWP District Fisheries Biologist that manages Lake Shawnee to answer your question on Lake Shawnee. His response is below.
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Craig,
Crappie management has been a challenge at Lake Shawnee. When I started sampling this water in 1988, crappie were slow growing (you might even use the term "stunted"). Some anglers referred to crappie at this lake as potato chip crappie - others claimed that you could read the newspaper through them! Anyway, most were small, lots of 7 inch fish. A couple of things have transpired since to improve the fishery; 1) consistent stockings of walleye served to create a predator base that thinned out the crappie population so that growth rate and overall size could improve, 2) largemouth bass/smallmouth bass populations improved to provide additional predation. Now instead of vast numbers of 7 inch crappie, we have fewer numbers of crappie with a little better size 8-9 inch fish, with a few exceeding 10 inches in length. One of the problems at Shawnee has been inconsistent and/or low production of gizzard shad. So even though crappie numbers and competition for available food is lower, the food base is still not optimal, so growth is not as good as it could be.
Richard