Health of Crappie (Need input please)

As most of you know I fish the Hiwassee/ Chickamauga areas most of the time out of convenience to home. This year as last after talking and hearing other fisherman on other Tenn(East Tenn) lakes there seems to be at times an abundance of small crappie, which I'm no biologist but must be a good sign for down the road. I spoke with a couple of guys who fished Tellico last week and were really disappointed with the fish up there being really thin. I will have to say that on the Hiwassee watershed that these keepers are super thick and after my first trip to Weiss this year I think we have the most chucky fish I have seen. Don't know the reason why but guess it has to do with food supply. Just like to hear from some of you other guys who fish these other reservoirs and give your opinion and state your home fishing Lake. Thanks

crappie's main source of food becomes meat around age 3, 9-10". That is when they put on some weight.

The Chick is a low land type of flood control lake with new soil and nutrients comming in all the time. This is good for all fish species and inparticular the shad. In the water temps in the low 40* range, you can see the millions and millions of shad in this lake and especially on the Hiwassee. This is the primary food for all three bass species, all specie of stripe, catfish, and is especially good food for the Crappie. These shad are lethargic in the cold water and easy prey for the Crappie just before their pre spawn. Crappie grow extremely fast here and I am glad because they get extreme pressure from the fishermen every year as well. I too have seen the many small Crappie and I am excited about the years to come. I thought that the drought would have hurt them but it now appears not so. We should experience good fishing for the Arkansas or Black Nose ( never stocked but some escaped from the Sugar CreeK Hatchery ) as well as the Whites as these conditions are perfect. It is not the best for Black Crappie although some are caught regularly. Black Crappie prefer the high land type lakes with much rock structure such as Watts Bar. Overall I would say the Chicamauga Crappie are very healthy.

More folks would share with us what they see in their area reservoirs. Sometimes this info can be helpful to the biogists who study our fisheries. And thanks again tnhooker for your contribution to us fisherman that helped us put more meat on the table.

My experience so far this year has been very few crappie on Nickajack, but the crappie have been healthy. The blacks have been thicker than the whites, but all have been thick and large. The crappie on Priest are more numerous, but they are mostly whites and are much thinner than Nickajack. I have yet to visit Woods or Normandy and would like info on these places.

The whites on Douglas we caught in March were very chuncky above average of normal,and Cherokee as always seem big as usual. The blacks on Cherokee seemed very healthy as well haven't caught as many casting as years past but also have done more longlining.

Just like Sowdaddy said, the Cherokee and Douglas crappie seem big and healthy. I have fished Ft. Loudoun several times this spring and caught probably 10 throwbacks to every keeper. Really, no big slabs for me this year at Loudoun. Last year we caught a number of limits of big heavy 13''-14'' white crappie in Loudoun.

On Watts Bar, so far this year and the last two springs, I have caught a ton of little fish (mostly males) and have caught some monstrous croppie as well. Seems like this year, at least for me, everything I'm catching is either a runt or a monster (14-16 inches long.) Seems like there is a small gap in there (11-12 inch fish). I'm not complaining though. I remember the days growing up on Douglas and the French Broad River when we would keep 60-80 fish but they wouldn't have near the size we have now. I've been putting back some of the borderline ten inchers since they dropped the limit to 15. There's just not much meat on them. I think Chickamauga is very healthy and Watts Bar is healthy as well. One thing I have noticed......it seems like the huge trophy fish don't tend to school up like the smaller fish do.