Crappie size at Lake Chesdin and Pocahontas Park Lake.

Anybody know why Lake Chesdin and Swift Creek Lake (the "big lake" at Pocahantas State Park--not to be confused with Swift Creek Reservoir between Brandermill and Woodlake) have so many 5-6-7 inch crappies? It's hard to find many 9-10 inches or larger. Is it a problem with too little forage minnows (i.e. stunted crappies due to to little food), or too much pressure removing larger fish? Has DWR done any Age Studies/ Growth Rate Studies at either of these 2 places? I googled and didn't find anything (except about walleyes at Lake Chesdin) but I may have overlooked. Thanks for any info...

I don't know how accurate it is, but there is a report by the Va. Game Commission (old name) that the small crappie in Chesdin are largely due to an over abundance of White Perch which compete with Crappie for food and also steal Crappie eggs. I don't fish Chesdin much, but I agree that you must wade through a pile of dinks in order to catch a few decent fish.

Welcome aboard Glenn. Seems like they use to have that problem at Buggs Island and they were encouraging fishermen to keep all the Crappie they caught.

Thanks Glenn and Bill. Maybe for the good of the resource I need to downsize my fillet knife and start keeping the white perch from Chesdin and undersize crappies from both places!