Black Crappie Cometh

October has came to an end but I got a couple of days fishing in on the tail end of it.Water temperatures at the first of the month on Tellico Lake were at 72 degrees but have now fallen down to 67 degrees at months end. I have found the fish moving shallower and grouping up more as the month has went along but also have been catching more short fish. Saturday I fished crappie magnets shallow in the creeks and finished with thirty five crappie caught but disappointingly had only four fish to measure out of those.
Made a move on Sunday to similar areas on another section of the lake where I saw a decrease in numbers but a definite increase in size. Out of twenty three crappie caught, twelve of these fish would keep. A little more than half which was a step in the right direction. Several of these were black crappie and I took note of how much healthier and chunky they were over the thin white crappie I have been used to catching on this lake for so long.
When I first started seeing more black crappie over the past few yrs, in this white dominate lake, I thought perhaps they just had a good spawn year. Now that I'm starting to see thick shoulders on these black crappie, Well, Now I'm thinking perhaps something else is going on here. They appear to be eating better than the white crappie for some reason. Any of you all happen to be a biologist with perhaps an explanation? I don't know maybe its all in my head. Anyhow if its and overall improvement, I say let the black crappie cometh.



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Nice pic
Thanks for the report

:cool:

Good question to Ask John Hammond or Mike Jolley

Oh and we've missed you at the ETCC events.

Nice fish

Thanks for sharing the report. I have for the most part always thought the Black Crappie were shorter and thicker than the White Crappie which are longer and somewhat thinner. At least in the areas I fish.

Good report, Gene. Ditto what Kingfish1 said. Black crappie seem to be shorter and much thicker than Whites. Whites don't look like they eat very well down on the Chick either. Must be something about wanting to keep their figure. Grin.

Yes I know the differences in black and white crappie LOL but that not what I was getting at.
I should have seen that coming from those not real familiar with the lake.
Anyhow, Perhaps that will teach me to put in more details next time huh?

Good post. I like Tellico, just don't get down there very often.