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I work with some pretty accomplished crappie fisherman who frequent Grand Lake south of Eudora and their recent trips over there along with mine have been less than stellar on a once sure thing this time of year. Some are saying the fish numbers just aren't there anymore because the AGFC has been seining the crappie for the last recent years and transferring them to other lakes like Chicot. Does anyone know if this is even possible?
was told they are stock-piling them for release into the soon to be famous "Bono Lake"
I was told the same thing last year. U might PM D 10 and ask how to find out
I know they admitted to seining them one year but I don't know if they will admit to any others because of the heat they took that one time. That year they turned the fish loose in front of Connerly Bayou in Lake Chicot....it's a big tourist town in the spring/summer and those out of towners need Crappie to catch! Lots of folks down here are talking about the increasingly obvious correlation between bodies of water with jumping carp and the scarcity of Crappie in those lakes.......and the fact that it wasn't that way before the introduction of the jumping carp. I personally don't know if that has anything to do with it......could be just the increased Crappie fishing population and improved harvesting (fishing) methods has got 'em thinned??
UAPB fisheries seined lake PB to stock another lake with crappie too. They have a bass study going on and the agfc won't touch the lake now for two years with any new fish.
I do not know anything about this. Contact Diana Andrews, the Fisheries Supervisor in that district. She should be able to shed some light on this topic. 870-367-3553
On a side note, this is a common rumor that we hear about other lakes when a game species population is in decline. The public wants to blame it on something that we (AGFC) did, rather than except that fish populations go up and down (especially crappie). If I had a guess, I would say this is the case for Grand as well.
Wonder if the jumping carp do damage to the spawning areas of crappie?
Big head carp eat blue green algae, zooplankton, and aquatic insects and larva.
The big head carp does not have a true stomach so it must constantly eat.
It is also thought that big head carp will compete for food with fish that are still in the larval stage, and fish populations decrease because the larval fish do not get enough food to survive.
They could possibly damage spawning areas or disrupt spawning if densities were great enough. Your second point RCC is the one I am more concerned about. Right now we do not know their short term or long term impacts on larval fish. To be honest, it is a little scary thinking about it.
The AGFC have collected fish on several waters for spawning to raise fry in hatcheries to stock. Even on my home lake in last few years I was told.
This is a common practice. When we have done this in the past, we collect around 200 fish for this purpose. This is a drop in the bucket compared to what anglers take out in a given day. I think that the misconception is that thousands of fish are relocated when this happens.Quote:
Originally Posted by NIMROD
Doesn't make any sense though to seine crappie out of one lake to put them in another, if you're gonna reduce the population to where you can't catch any fish in the first lake. I'm gonna guess its like any other place and its in a bad rotation. I seem to follow lakes like that. Where's it at? I'll try it next.
Exactly what I'm talking about. No one is moving crappie from one lake to the point that it is hurting the population.Quote:
Originally Posted by dblevens
Thanks for all the info...I will say the carp are more abundant than ever and sound like a hog wallow in the shallows but the lake itself is in better shape than ever with more water and spawning grounds and and the angler pressure has fallen off considerably the last 2-3 years...it's still a fine fisheries and one that can never be counted out.
I think they have been sampling Lake Chicot, Pine Bluff, and Wallace, the last couple of years. I could be wrong. I worked down there from 2005 - 2009. Our sample numbers were only second to Lake Conway. We heard all of those rumors. We did collect some fish one year (2007 or 2008) for the hatchery to spawn out to stock in other lakes. We had members of the public watching us during the whole collection process. That year, we had crappie stock back in the lake to make up for the ones taken out.
In Grand Lake, the crappie grow fast and rarely live past age 4.
Lake Chicot is stocked through the nursery pond in Connerly Bayou. The broodstock for that nursery pond are collected in Connerly Bayou.
Any way we can shock the hull out of those Flying Carp and sell them back to China? Just wondering. Heard they are good eating, but I still think I am going to like crappie over flying carp meat..
At one point in time, plans were being made to attempt to thin out the Asian carp by gill netting them. I can't remember the reason the project was scraped.Quote:
Originally Posted by CrappiePro
While on the subject of shock sampling, I know there has been some of that going on in this area the last couple of weeks including Grand last week...is now the time to be doing this with a lot of the females still full of eggs...looks to me like it would stress the fish out and possibly limit it's spawning activities???
Gasper the shallower the fish the easier to shock as the fish have less time to move out away from the current. When in deeper water you almost have to Hoover over them and they can move away from the current. It's more common to shock in the spring for this reason.
I like to shock em with a minner and hook!!
This is correct. We electrofish in the spring when the bass are shallow. Electrofishing is only effective up to a certain depth, depending on the settings. A lot of research has been done on the effects of electrofishing on various species of fish. This technique of sampling is highly refined, so that we do not injure fish. So to answer your question, electrofishing does not harm fish if done correctly.Quote:
Originally Posted by arkansasbowhunter
So, How much water is in the nursery pond on connerly bayou? According to Google Earth it's dry as a bone.
I called Diana Andrews in Monticello and she said that they were not taking fish from Grand to stock other lakes.
I just talked to a fellow that has a place over there with his brother and saw them seining last December...he complained to Ms Andrews about it and she was unaware of such activities??..I don't know myself what's going on but I do know I haven't had a good year over there since 2010.
Google earth images are not live. Usually you can find a date for the image you see. They are often months or years old.Quote:
Originally Posted by slotlimit
Ok. When was the last hatch of crappie in the nursery pond then?
Just ask whatever question it is that you have in mind. No need to beat around the bush on it s you obviously have somewhere your wanting to go with this.Quote:
Originally Posted by slotlimit
Crappie are raised in the pond, the majority of the time. I know of only one year that something besides crappie was raised in there. Raising crappie was the main purpose of constructing that nursery pond. The pond is currently full and has been stocked with brood crappie collected from Connerly Bayou. Normally, the pond is released in October.
Sounds good. I was just wondering how much they use it.
It is used every year.
Diana Andrews (GFA) told me yesterday that have not taken any crappie to stock other lakes period ,from Grand Lake.
If this is the case they must constantly poop also. Maybe the lakes are just full of Carp Crap. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by RCC
Grand is full of catfish and litte yellow bass, just like Chicot. I would imagine those small crappie make great snacks.