Crappie Biology

Haven’t posted anything in a while, so I thought I would pass along some crappie information.

First, I just re-read an older scientific article on crappie that I completely agree with because we see the same thing happen at KY and Barkley as Allen and Miranda did in their study of crappie at a lake in Mississippi in 2001. The title of their paper is “Quasi-cycles in crappie populations are forced by interactions among population characteristics and environment”. Basically what they are saying, although crappie populations are characterized at cyclic, meaning they have strong year classes every 2-4 years, the populations have more “quasi” cycles. Or, the cycles don’t really have the same duration. The quasi cycles are results of the interaction between random fluctuations in environment and density-dependent mechanisms. Even when the density of adult fish was high, recruitment (strength of a year class) was low, even if environmental conditions were favorable. This is a density-dependent mechanism, where recruitment is affected more by the density of adult fish. When densities of adult fish were low to intermediate, recruitment was then variable due to environmental fluctuations (water levels, cold fronts, water temperature, etc.). Take out the environmental fluctuations, and having to only consider density-dependent mechanism, you might see more consistent cycles in recruitment. It is like you have two moving targets, and occasionally they over lap, yielding a good year class.

Secondly, at KY Lake, we have had a couple of good year classes; 2009 and 2010. Recruitment from the 2005 to 2008 was low. The 2009 crappie would be 5 year old fish this year. In general, crappie typically reach 10 inches during their third growing season (white crappie a little sooner than black crappie). So the 4 and 5 year old fish are the pound plus crappie you should be catching this fall. The 2011 year class was a little below average. So, average numbers of 9-11 inch crappie in the population. While the 2012 year class seems to have been the worst we have every recorded since sampling started in the mid 1980’s. This year class would be represented by the 6 to 8 inch crappie. My explanation for this poor year class would be related to the 2012 drought. Some may remember the lake never reached summer pool that year.

Lastly, I need to get some otoliths from white crappie caught by anglers fishing Blood River this month (October). This is part of the white crappie stocking project we conducted between 2009 and 2013. The white crappie we stocked were marked with a chemical that stained their otoliths. The otolith is the bone inside their body that we use to age the fish. All I need is the carcass of the white crappie you catch from Blood River. I can then remove the otoliths. Looking at the otoliths will tell us the number of stocked fish being caught compared to naturally produced white crappie in Blood River. In 2012, about 5% of the catch was stocked fish. In 2013, about 4% were stocked fish. If you want to help out, send me an email at [email protected].

Paul, Thanks for the info. Can the crappie carcasses be frozen and still work for your study?

We hope you can swing by Lakeside Campground on Jonathan Creek on Saturday for the shindig.

I have a question. This summer I caught 3-4 large drums on Ky Lake that had some kind of dark "growth" inside their gill plates. The growths were very visible and some had several. They were round and about the diameter of a quarter. They appeared to be attached to the bony structure next to the actual gills. I didn't take any photos but they were nasty looking. I've seen lampreys on this lake but these were not those. Any ideas?

I have fished Barren for over twenty years and have gotten used to the winter draw down of summer pool at 552 and winter at 528. Every year about this time I start getting worried that we, my buddy an I, don't seem to catch as many as previous years. His answer to me is, Russ we caught the very last crappie. :) I wouldn't trade him for a new Ranger, and then the Corp starts pulling the lake a little harder, 6-8" a day, and things start picking up as the cooler temps roll in and it seems to snowball from then till the spring bobber fisherman drive me nuts and I start working in the garden. Not sure if its due to the depth of the lake or due to the abundance of shad but we seem to hold steady and have good catches yearly. I don't have any hard numbers to go by just some pretty fond memories. I do have a fellas number on my phone who works for the Dept of Fish and Wildlife and we call him when we catch 20 or more then we meet on the lake and he removes the otoliths and weighs them while we chew the fat. I was amazed when he told us that they were like looking at the cross section of a tree, some good growth years and bad. Its nice to know we can help improve something that we all enjoy so much. My garden is pretty much done for the year, and I'm anxious.