Dead Crappie Jordan Lake - Farrington Bridge

Anyone have any idea why there are so many dead Crappie floating around the Farrington Bridge? All good keeper size.

Any recent tournaments there?

I'd guess one of two reasons. There's been a ton of runoff in the lake the past couple of months. Also, the spawn is really tough on these fish and some die from it every year.

I’ve never found crappie floating on Norman, other than a single every blue moon. Seems odd it would only be in the Farrington area. What kind of numbers are you talking?
TW

Counted 20’ish on the west side of the bridge. Fish were 25-50 yards off the bank. No Fish washed up on the bank. Very strange.

Sounds like a normal spawn die-off. I was fishing Harris over Easter and several females in the 1.5 lb. range were floating. As Jack said, spawning is physically very difficult and there are always some that die. There have been no tournaments on Jordan since the lake went over 12' high and the ramps closed.

I just looked and Jordan went up to about 231' with a normal pool of 216. They are letting about 10" a day out of the lake, so a lot of water is being pulled under the Farrington bridge. Many thousands of crappie spawn above the Farrington bridge, so if 20 or so were floating, that would actually be a small number in my opinion. In the years I have been crappie fishing on Jordan, I cannot remember the lake flooding so high during the spawn. Let's hope the hatched young ones don't get stranded up in the woods.

Jordan has always had dead Crappie floating after the spawn.Norman has.nowhere the.denisity of.crappie as Jordan.

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I would agree very much with what's been said... but would add that spring time is also a time that brings much chemical runoff from the creeks and wet weather drains that carry lots of fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals from the farmlands and yards that can also be poisonous to any fish species that are weakened or over-stressed by the rigors of the spawn. Also, I'm sure a certain number are fish that are foul hooked or even critically wounded by cormorants, herons, ospreys or other predators while somewhat shallow.

Never know. Someone might have had some they were going to take home and then threw them out. I've seen it happen before.