Small crappies

On Tuesday went to my favorite crappie lake where for the past four or five years we usually catch 9-12 inchers, very few less than 9", and I almost never brought any of those home. This was the first time we targeted crappies there this year, and I could hardly believe it, but every one we caught was under 9". My wife wanted to have some to fry up, and she doesn't mind cleaning them, so we took home 30. Crappies are her favorite freshwater fish, she says they taste like crabmeat. These little ones were really good eating, maybe better than the bigger ones.

I wonder if all the bigger ones vanished during the past year. We trolled over tons of these smaller ones, school after school 10-20' in diameter and about 3' thick. They were biting really light, so maybe there were still big ones around, but they just didn't feel like biting. I was reading that in Minnesota the crappies go through cycles where one size class dominates in a lake. Anyway it should be fun to watch these little guys grow up over the next couple years! Do you guys ever come across this kind of thing? To go from never catching any small ones one year, to catching only small ones the next?

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/membe...6-img-8788.jpg

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/membe...7-img-8803.jpg

I don't know about that, but your picture's making me hungry.

I always thought crappies schooled pretty much by size. If the lake you fish is on the small side it is possible that they have stunted? I fish a lake that's about 120 acres and have NEVER caught a crappie longer than 9" and I assume they are just so abundant that they are all small. Crappies grow fast and die young so things like that can happen pretty fast. Any predators (pike, walleyes) in the lake in question? BTW....your wife cleans fish? Wow! You and Crappie 1 are two might lucky fellas. My wife don't fish, don't clean fish, don't eat fish, and don't stand up and cheer when I go fishing. Come to think of it...maybe she DOES stand up and cheer when I go fishing. http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w...smiley-021.gif

Jiggy,

Good question. I go through it alot in some of the lakes I fish. I have a few ideas in regards to why this happens:
If these fish are 2 years old, then they may have had a really great age class. In other words, look back two years ago. Was it a harsh winter, or not.... what was right that made breeding so well? Simply put is that during that year, predation may have been small, breeding was great, and hatch and suvival rates were up. Unfortunately, if this continues with this particular age class then you might be right, more fish population in the water will mean less food thus dropping the overall total average length and size of the fish.

There is severel lakes in Michigan that this has happened to. Low predation, great spawning and suvival rates. This equates to really small average size fish due to the size of the lack and sustainment of the food that each fish needs to eat. Sometimes more isn't always a good thing.

There could be a really simple explaination for all of this: A. You didn't find the big ones, or B. the big ones were not hungry!

If your like me, sometimes we over analyze stuff to much. Head back in a month of so and see if your numbers change... If not, send me the location of the lake and I'll try my hand at it:Rofl

Thanks for your replies. I've been away for a few days and haven't had internet access. From what you guys said, plus me thinking more about it, I'm guessing that where I usually have found the bigger ones was occupied by schools of the smaller ones, and the bigger ones were elsewhere. The lake is 325 acres, so there is room for them to hide. I can't believe they've vanished. Although there is a lot of fishing pressure, I don't think most guys are looking for crappies. For sure I'll be going back to see if I can track them down. If you're in south central MI and want to give it a shot send me a pm and I'll be happy to let you know where it is--just please let me know how you do! Maybe we can figure out what is going on with these buggers.