Thread: I'm not seeing what they're seeing

Oh and by the way, I put my 20 in the boat. Took me four hours but I got'em. Had one that went 2lbs 5 oz.

Just got home from work and sit down to read the paper and guess what? There's an article in there about the same thing I was talking about. It seems now that they realize there has been a change to the lake and are advising changing your technique. This is the same thing some of us here in Kentucky have been preaching about for the past three years. Glad they finally caught on. Now if they will just go and sample deeper water for white crappie, I think they will see that the whites are still here, they have just moved to deeper water.

I've had he same problem Six. I've had days that I had to weed thru 60 dinks to get my limit. Mostly whites. I agree the fish population is down but there sure are a lot of small fish out there.

you know maybe we are going to have to take some of them with us and show them what the fishermen are seeing. Not just on paper. Everything you read is that the that there aren't any fish. Like Whiskers stated maybe the fish are down granted but the small ones are there..

Originally Posted by buffalo13

you know maybe we are going to have to take some of them with us and show them what the fishermen are seeing. Not just on paper. Everything you read is that the that there aren't any fish. Like Whiskers stated maybe the fish are down granted but the small ones are there..

This might sound kinda sneaky, but let everyone think there aren't any crappie out there....might leave a little room for me!

Originally Posted by buffalo13

you know maybe we are going to have to take some of them with us and show them what the fishermen are seeing. Not just on paper. Everything you read is that the that there aren't any fish. Like Whiskers stated maybe the fish are down granted but the small ones are there..

They do a lot of creel surveys and ask people on the water what they have been catching. It isn't all just net or shocking data.

(at least they used to)

Originally Posted by Quackrstackr

They do a lot of creel surveys and ask people on the water what they have been catching. It isn't all just net or shocking data.

(at least they used to)

Yeah, I've taken part in the creel survey a few times.

Sixfin,
I have been catching 10 small fish to one keeper since last fall . Terry and a lot of the guides on N. KY. Lake are saying the same thing. The KDFW will tell you that there survey is just an estimate but I am seeing different results. Rory Flynn's surveys say just the opposite of the net studies and I think your right on about different fishing techniques produce black verses white results. I was fishing paddle boat harbour by KY.Dam Marina and was thinking that would be a great place for a crappie hatchery and education center. Take care and here is the latest creel survey by KDFW.



Total angler pressure at Kentucky Lake during March – October.

1991 – 1,142,741 hours

2003 – 980,132 hours

2004 – 1,351,675 hours

2007 – 1,077,120 hours



Percent of this effort by crappie anglers

1991 – 45.8%

2003 – 42.3%

2004 – 31.6%

2007 – 37.3%



Number of Crappie Caught

1991 – 627,677

2003 – 456,953

2004 – 355,473

2007 – 371,584



Number of Crappie Harvested

1991 – 345,103

2003 – 249,576

2004 – 190,805

2007 – 230,762



The thing to remember on the number caught and harvested is you have to factor in what type of weather we were having during April, along with water level and other such conditions that affect crappie fishing success. Historically, 50% of the crappie harvested occurs in April. So, when we have those late winter blast in April, or ups and downs with water levels, the catch and harvest of crappie during this one month can have a great impact these numbers for the year. That is why creel data is only one piece of the “management pie”. We also use spring electrofishing and fall trap netting to sample the fish populations to help give us a better picture of what the populations are doing.



Percentage of the Crappie catch that were black crappie

1991 – 12.8%

2003 – 28.1%

2004 – 32.9%

2007 – 31.0%



Average length and weight of white crappie harvested

1991 – 10.7 in / 0.58 lb

2003 – 11.4 in / 0.72 lb

2004 – 11.7 in / 0.78 lb

2007 – 11.1 in / 0.66 lb



Average length and weight of black crappie harvested

1991 – 10.6 in / 0.63 lb

2003 – 11.4 in / 0.81 lb

2004 – 11.2 in / 0.77 lb

2007 – 11.5 in / 0.87 lb



Fishing method used to catch crappie by percent, for all crappie anglers

2003 – still fishing 61.5%, casting 15.3%, trolling 0.2% and spider rigging 23.0%

2004 – still fishing 52.3%, casting 28.7%, trolling 0.3% and spider rigging 18.7%

2007 – still fishing 45.1%, casting 30.7%, trolling 6.8% and spider rigging 17.4%



Still fishing is an angler fishing 1 or 2 poles, normally with a bobber up shallow or vertical fishing the ledges. Casting is someone casting a jig or in-line spinner type bait toward the shoreline, trolling is an angler whose bait is under power and trailing their bait, spider rigging is an angler fishing 3 or more poles most often vertical fishing the ledges or flats.



Fishing success, percentage of anglers that caught crappie

1991 – 44.4%

2003 – 54.5%

2004 – 47.6%

2007 – 51.4%



This data is from our fall trap netting for crappie. CPUE means the number of crappie that we caught per net night. Normally we fish a total of 80 net nights. That is 20 nets for 4 nights. This chart is for only the crappie that were 10 inches and larger that we caught in the nets. As an example in 2007 we caught about 6 harvestable size crappie per net night. That means we probably caught slightly more than 500 crappie 10 inches or larger. However, with trap nets we are really interested more in the small fish, what we call the young of the year, or what was spawned. Also the age 1 fish, what was spawned last year. We know it takes on average 3 years for a crappie to reach 10 inches. We can use the catch of these smaller fish to predict future fishing success. The increase in number for 2007 is due to good years classes produced in 2002 and 2003, but mostly by the 2003 year class, which were age 4 fish.









This is a chart for the age 1 crappie that we caught in trap nets. Notice the scale on the left has changed from the above chart. A lot of the crappie that will be caught by anglers this year will be from that strong year class produced in 2003, but on this graph they are age 1 and showed up in 2004. This year these fish will be age 5. This is getting to be an old crappie. The poorer year classes produced in 2004, 2005 and 2006 are represented by the declining numbers of age 1 crappie caught in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Looking at the age 0 chart, the 2007 spawn looks like it will be poor also, further increasing the decline. Hence, why we have dropped the creel limit to 20.