Are there any crappie left in Sooner?

[Achiro]

Ran over yesterday afternoon because it's the closest lake to me and I needed to get the boat in the water. Ran around a bit, caught a few largemouth bass and a small striper. Found a few brushpiles that looked real good at a good depth but nothing on them. I've been told it was once a really good crappie lake but I wonder if there are any left in the lake???

On another note, I found a cove that was just loaded with fish but have no idea what they were. I tried everything big and small from spoons to spinner baits, jigs to rattletraps and never even got a bump. Thought about throwing a net but ran out of time. Some of the school had pockets of larger fish. Hopefully the video shows up. Any ideas what I'm looking at?

[TimY]

That's either 1 of 2 things in Sooner. It's either large schools of shad, which I doubt or schools of white perch. The latter is probably right. There are millions of white perch in Sooner.

[dennishoddy]

The white perch have no predators to keep them in check.

[Fishers]

If you see something that looks like a crappie dont get excited, its a drum. Lake is full of em.

[van the man]

Fishers is right. I've caught dozens of drum out there, some over 10 lbs. There are some saugeye in there.

[dstreet]

I fished Sooner a lot about 15 years ago, could usually catch limits anchoring up on the tunnels going under the highways in an evening after work, Back then the crappie were so skinny even a 14" crappie would have a hard time weighing 1lb.

[TimY]

The biologists list white perch as an aquatic problem right along with zebra mussels, which sooner is also full of, and tell you not to release them back into the lake. They also say white perch feed on fish eggs and will go into a nest and wipe out the entire nest of eggs. I understand they have been releasing a lot of walleye into the lake to try to control the white perch population. I would guess they caused the crappie decline over the years. Used to love fishing sooner but it has definitely changed over the years.

[dennishoddy]

Back when I worked at the power plant, there were some brush piles in the discharge area that held a lot of crappie, but as the years went by, fewer and fewer were caught. It could have been the brush piles deteriorated, or the combo of zebra mussles, and white perch. The hybrids and black bass looked like they were starving with sunken bellies, but the stripers always looked healthy.
I guess a person is going to learn white perch fishing and fish for them like they do up around the Great Lakes. No limit, so if they are aggressive feeders, a live well full of them should produce plenty of fillets.

[TimY]

They tell me a small 1/32nd or 1/64th ounce jig with a piece of minnow or worm on it will kill them and they are getting big in sooner. They also say they are some of the best eating fish there is don't know never tried them but I know a lot of people who have. Be a good place to take kids so they could catch a bunch.

[callmecamo]

Anyone know if they're good eating?? I would assume that it would be akin to a small sand/white bass. Same family.