Panfish Growth

Here are some data for crappie and bass growth in select NW,KC and STL region small impoundments. I realize it is a lot to look at and take in, but if you have a favorite small impoundment or are just curious about one close by, this gives you a general idea of how fast the average crappie in that lake is growing through its lifetime. Obviously, some grow much faster than others, so we have a minimum and maximum size for each age as well. N = the number of fish that were that aged. TL = total length. Range = minimum and maximum.

The reason we collected this much data on these lakes was because they all are infested with gizzard shad and a majority of them have common carp as well. Shad may not be a terrible problem to have in many large(>1,000 acre) reservoirs, but in small impoundments (<300 acres, in thiscase), they can greatly reduce panfish (crappie, bluegill) growth.

We began an 8-year study last year looking at the potential of stocking additional predators to reduce shad and carp numbers to the point we see increased panfish growth. Hybrid striped bass will be stocked at a rate of 100/acre for six years (stocking began this year) in all treatment lakes, and flathead catfish will be stocked at 15/acre for three years (starting next year) in the hybrid/flathead treatment lakes. Reference lakes will not be stocked.

I threw in the bass data for those curious about bass growth. I did not include maximum and minimum sizes for bass, but the quickest any bass grew to 20 inches in any of the lakes was 8 years.

White Crappie	Age
Lake	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Belcher Branch			7.3	10.7
Buffalo Bill	4.4		8.2	9.7
Busch 34		8.2	9.5	9.7
Busch 37		8.0	8.8	10.7
Hamilton City			7.2	8.0	7.4	7.5	9.1	8.3	10.7
Cameron 2		6.3		11.4		14.7
Nodaway Co.			6.9	8.0	8.6	9.1						14.2
Charity
Watkins Mill		5.8	6.7	7.2	7.8	9.3	7.7	7.4					14.4
Ray Co.		6.4	8.0
Limpp	4.6	6.3	7.4	7.5	13.0	12.9	13.7
Cameron 1		6.4		11.3	12.8
Little Compton		6.0	6.7	7.2	8.4		7.6
Brookfield City				7.2	7.9	7.8	9.3
Sunfish	4.8	5.4	6.9	6.1	7.6			12.6	6.4
Spanish	5.0	7.2	9.5	11.9	13.3
Willow Brook	4.4	9.8	12.0	12.2	12.0	11.6		13.0	14.0
Grindstone	4.7	5.7	7.0	10.9	10.4	9.6	11.3	8.4	10.7

Black Crappie	Age
Lake	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Belcher Branch			7.5	9.0	10.5	9.0			10.3
Buffalo Bill		5.4	7.3	8.5	8.9	9.6	9.4
Busch 34		8.1		9.9		11.0
Busch 37			8.4
Hamilton City		6.7	7.2	7.8	8.1	8.1	8.0
Cameron 2		4.7	7.7	9.4	11.7			13.5	9.9	13.2
Nodaway Co.		6.2	7.7	8.4	9.4	9.4
Charity				11.8		12.1
Watkins Mill
Ray Co.		6.8	7.8	9.1	9.5	11.2	11.8
Limpp		6.0	7.3	7.8	8.9	8.4	9.1	9.7
Cameron 1	3.8	5.7	8.0	8.7		9.8					9.8
Little Compton			8.0	7.1	11.5
Brookfield City					7.6	8.0			8.1	8.0
Sunfish			5.9						6.0
Spanish	4.5	6.7	8.1	8.6	8.5	8.7	9.4
Willow Brook
Grindstone					7.2	13.5		10.1

The top row is age???? You found a 13 year old crappie??? In Watkins?

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Originally Posted by vic n

The top row is age???? You found a 13 year old crappie??? In Watkins?

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I was wondering the same thing, Vic!

Yes we did. We also found a 12 year-old shad in a STL lake. Amazing.

Very informative and interesting. Thanks for posting.

how do you know how old the fish is in the first place?

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Originally Posted by stratosverian

how do you know how old the fish is in the first place?

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That info was discussed in an earlier thread. I know I'll say it wrong, but what I understood is that they examine a small bone....almost like a bone from the inner ear....and they can tell by "growth rings" (just like a tree) how old they are, and even which years might have had a growth spurt

That's correct. For crappie, bluegill and shad we can read otolith (ear bone) rings like tree rings are read for aging. We use sections of catfish and carp spines for aging, and we use scales for bass, instead of otoliths, for this project. Each year fish lay a growth ring down on a scale, otolith or spine. We are able to read daily growth rings on young fish as well, if necessary.

Sweeet! larger rings are years with lots of rain just like trees? :biggrin

Never knew about the ear bone thing, pretty cool!! How much magnification does it take to see the rings on the bones/scales? is this something someone with a microscope at home could do? Thanks MEngel!

You don't need much magnification for otoliths, but the best way to look at them is crack them in half, sand the cracked edge with very fine sandpaper and have a light source to direct into the otolith to illuminate the rings. Sometimes they are pretty easy to read without cracking the otolith, but it depends on species, age of fish, etc. Scales are tough because they can be regenerated from traumatic events or just rubbing them off on objects which would make the fish seem younger than it really is. So you need a bunch of scales from the same fish to make sure you have the correct age and higher magnification for many species than otoliths. The older the fish is, the higher chance it has regenerated its scales in the past. For spines, you need a special saw to cut a very thin section to read. The attached picture is a spine section from a 56 inch, 92 pound blue catfish. Just an example of what they look like.

so am i reading it right? is it 18 years old, or do those really faint lines count?

Good read! We came to a consensus of 17+. The + means it is in its 17th year. The outside of the otolith or spine does not count as a annuli. Normally, we have two or three people read the same otoliths. If there is a disagreement among readers, they sit down and read it together until a consensus is reached. We don't usually look at the fish lengths at the time of reading so there is no aging bias.

SWEEET! :biggrin