Interesting crappie artical in the TWRA book

Since I get my sportsman liscense I get the little publication that TWRA sends out every few months and last night I read an artical in it about black nose crappie. I've caught several of them in Chickamauga and 1 on Douglas and always that it was just an abnormality and I was "sorta" right. It's a recessive trait in black crappie and TWRA's hatchery breeds this trait to make it easier to record catch rates of stocked fish. It's possible to have it happen in unstocked fish but, it's rare. It said that lakes with a majority of black nose crappie being caught usually isn't a "quaility" crappie lake and if not for stocking that lakes crappie fishery would be almost none excistent. I don't have it infront of me to quote the wording but, that's the "gist" of it.

Have any of you all every caught any of these black nose crappie?

Dale Hollow is full of them....Boch

I have caught them in the water shed lakes around Reelfoot. I have not caught any trophy size ones
but many eaters have made the trip home with me.

I've caught them up to ~2lbs from Watts Bar.

I've "heard" of them being caught in KY Lake, and I've also heard that Clark's Hill is full of them. Dale Hollow has also been mentioned as having them, as has Weiss Lake.

Truth of the matter is ... they are naturally occurring in 13 states, though not in all waters of those states.

Recent studies have found the black stripe gene is "dominant", rather than recessive.

They've been used for stocking purposes (for decades), because they're easily identified from the core population (even as fingerlings) and sampling studies can be done strictly by sight or angler survey.

The Blacknose Black Crappie and any Blacknose / Black Crappie crossbreeds are fertile and can reproduce. However, there is a sterile hybrid being produced in Mississippi. The Magnolia Crappie is a triploid hybrid that is a sterile fish that's a crossbreed between a male Blacknose & female White Crappie, done in fish hatcheries. They are not distinguishable from a naturally occurring Blacknose or Blacknose/Black cross ... as all will have the same black stripe. Magnolia Crappie will, however, grow faster and larger overall, because they do not spawn & all their food intake is put towards growth of the individual (and not for egg/milt production).

... cp :kewl

Dale Hollow Lake must have a lot. We caught one on our only trip there last fall. We seldom catch them on the "Chick". I think we caught 2 all last year.

Usually always catch 1 or 2 out of a limit here on Priest

Caught one at Reelfoot today...

Catch them at Normandy and Tim's.

Norris lake gets them stocked every year, don't know why the crappie #s are so low other than the lake levels go up & down so much & the different shad put in for the rock fish may eat the eggs. I think we are at a 10 count on limit now vs a 5 limit for several years.