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"The population has good numbers of 11-13 inch fish and low numbers of sub-legal size crappie"
The forecast for this year is good, but that part about low numbers of sub-legal size crappie seems like something to be concerned about. Those sub-legal fish are next years legal fish.
Have there been spawn issues the last few years? I know last spring had a lot of water going through the lake.
Where did you get a crappie forecast? Wouldn't mind reading it... This is just a guess, but 10" crappie at Kentucky Lake has to be at least 4 years old, so last year's flood wouldn't effect this years fishing. I have been fishing KY Lake for about 6 years now during the spawn, and the water has been pretty consistant except for last year... it will be interesting to see what happens, because of it down the road.
Hey Cat Fan,
Thanks for mentioning the report was out. I found it at
State releases Kentucky fishing forecasts and reports | Kentucky Fishing
I took a quick look at my favorite lakes, and it doesn't seem to have changed much from last year. I wish I knew more about how they do the sampling to inform the report.
And I found some interesting tidbits, that may shed some light on some questions recently asked.
If Taylorsville Lake is experiencing a Black Crappie domination .... it could be the reason why people are seeming to have such a hard time catching Crappie like they used to. We may have to change our tactics & timing to match the habits of the Black Crappie. ;)
On Herrington - it states that fising is best around brush in upper half of lake. While I have experienced both halves ... I always caught numbers in the upper half, but larger fish in the lower half. It will be interesting to see if that still holds true.
For those asking about Lake Linville : "Crappie Fair Most fish are 7-10 inches in length with a limited number of larger fish available." That's a better report than I would have expected :p
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CatFan - I think the KY/Barkley fish grow a little faster than those of the rest of the state's waters. Low numbers of sub-legals will affect one or two years fishing, down the road, as will water levels during the spawn. This may or may not be offset by the reduction in creel, from 30fish/day to 20fish/day.
HighTide - I think the normal growth rate, in this state, is ~ 9" in three years ... but, KY/Barkley Lake fish may grow a bit faster. Even so, a 3yo fish is a mature spawner, regardless of length (at Cedar Creek Lake, I've caught spawning fish off their beds, that weren't even 9" in length).
TeqSheriff - the "forecasts" are guesstimates based on trap sampling, angler surveys, creel checks, and shocking runs ... different methods are done on different bodies of water, and one or more of them may be done on any one body of water. The previous years reports are also used, probably as a baseline ... then, given "normal" conditions in the upcoming year, projections are made.
.... cp :cool:
Thanks all, for the information... That early crappie bite is right around the corner, and I can't wait. Good luck out there. HT
"On Herrington - it states that fising is best around brush in upper half of lake. While I have experienced both halves ... I always caught numbers in the upper half, but larger fish in the lower half. It will be interesting to see if that still holds true." crappiepappy
Greetings crappiepappy,
I'm going to reveal how ignorant I am with this question, but it has been bugging me for the longest time. In these lake reports, is the lower lake where the creek or river comes into the lake, with the upper lake being the dam end, or vice versa? Minnerdipper2
They keep saying that there are low numbers of sub-legal sized fish here on Ky. & Barkley. Heck I'd hate to see it if they were plentiful! :eek: For the last year and a half I have had to weed thru countless small fish to get a mess. I made a post last year about catching close to 200 dinks one day. Even now its that way. I went Thursday & Friday and I bet in the 2 days I caught 200 fish & only 34 of them were legal size. Heck you can't hardly fish for the darn things. It's like fish'n in a school of yellow bellies! No kidding! Every brush pile I go to, it's nothing at all or full of dinks! It's not just me either. All my buddies and others I've talked to are having the same problem. I hear what they're say'n but you'll never make me believe it!Quote:
Originally Posted by CatFan
I'm go'n to that meetig Tues. night. I gotta hear what these guys have to say.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MinnerDipper2
The "lower lake" refers to the dam end of a lake. Water flows "downhill" ... so you'd be going uphill, if you go towards the source (upper lake) ;)
Don't feel ignorant ... I was long confused on this, as well :D ... until I realized that the water comes from the "upper" land (higher elevation) and flows to the "lower" land (lower elev.) and that's how they designated the lake sections. You will still see me refer to sections of a lake as "river end" or "dam end" ... not only from habit, but to insure the reader isn't confused about the "upper/lower lake" designation. :D
... cp :cool:
Hey Whiskers,
Ask them that knows about the maps they are putting out with GPS cords . I heard they were making maps to attract tourists to the KY. Lake area. Might be some of our stuff !! Good luck at the meeting. I believe its geared to persuade the Christian County Sportsman League that closing some bays for the spawn is not good science . I think KDFW is proposing to start a crappie stocking program if they can figure out how to pay for it, wink wink ! Take care .
TS thanks for the link.Quote:
Originally Posted by TeqSheriff
Quote:
Originally Posted by ifish
Stocking up
Kentucky-Barkley managers to propose trial stockings to bolster crappie fishing
By Steve Vantreese
Saturday, February 14, 2009
A public parlay between fisheries managers and anglers about how to pump up the crappie fishing of Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley may herald a new twist for the giant lakes: hatchery crappie.
The meeting is set for 6:30-9 p.m. Tuesday at Miss Scarlett’s restaurant just off the Grand Rivers exit of I-24. Paul Rister, district fisheries biologist for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, among others will address a League of Kentucky Sportsmen resolution passed as a plan to boost crappie fishing that has declined in recent years on the big sister lakes.
The LKS initially asked for the closing of some bays, seeking a temporary crappie fishing ban on, among others, the rear section of the Blood River arm of Kentucky Lake. The sportsman’s group then adjusted the resolution to recommend that the KDFWR take steps to ban fishing along portions of big lakes shorelines during coming crappie spawning seasons. The idea is to leave more spawning fish undisturbed, increasing the spawning success of existing fish to improve recruitment for future classes of crappie.
Rister said managers oppose the prospects of closing public areas, calling the potential gains insignificant in relation to the difficulties of arbitrarily closing certain areas and viewing the enforcement of any such closure uncertain at best.
Instead, Rister said he and other KDFWR managers would like to go concerned anglers one better and institute a program of stocking young crappie in a couple of select locations as an experiment toward improving crappie numbers.
The alternative proposal from the KDFWR is to gather 180 pairs of white crappie from the lakes, haul them to the agency’s Frankfort hatchery where they will be used to produce a controlled spawn this spring, Rister said. The young of those Kentucky-Barkley parent fish (keeping native genetics in line) will be raised to fingerling size, averaging about three inches, then trucked back to the big lakes in October and released, he said.
“This would be a kind of a trial, a three-year study to see what kind of results we can get,” Rister said. “We’re looking to stock a minimum of about 10 fingerlings per acre in Blood River on Kentucky and in the Little River arm on Barkley, two main fisheries.
“We expect we can produce about 30,000 young crappie per embayment with the use of six hatchery ponds,” he said. “This will cost an estimated $30,000-plus, so the hatchery cost will break down to about 50 cents per fingerling crappie.”
Rister said legal “keeper” size crappie, 10 inches on the sister lakes, typically are attained with three years of growth, so the first hatchery crop of fish would figure to become harvestable fish in 2012. He said managed crappie fishing tournaments of a sort would be hosted by the KDFWR then on Blood River and Little River to monitor the success of the stocking program.
While the fingerling crappie can’t be tagged to identify them as the hatchery fish, they will be treated with a chemical that give them an internal characteristic that will show their source, Rister said. Each treated crappie will bear an otolith, the middle ear bone, that will glow in the dark, setting them apart from naturally spawned crappie, he said.
“By being able to identify the stocked crappie caught, that will show us how well the stockings worked,” Rister said. “We can then figure whether stocking is an economically feasible alternative to helping us through the low spots in the crappie population cycle.
“Fishermen will have to consider how much the stocking helps their results and whether it’s worth paying the license dollars for,” Rister said. (The KDFWR operates not under general funding but almost wholly through the sales of sportsmen’s license and permits.)
While crappie fishing has been in decline in most recent seasons, chiefly because of changing conditions on the lakes, Rister has been expecting that anglers will experience a further downturn starting this year. Crappie sampling data shows that the fish have had poorer than normal spawns for the past three years on the big lakes.
As the leaner spawning class of 2006 this year takes its turn as the incoming new legal keepers, fishermen may note smaller numbers of these entry level 10-inch crappie, Rister said. And with sub-par year classes also coming into keeper size over the next two years, the downturn in population only is likely to become more evident.
Rister said fishing pressure on popular Kentucky-Barkley waters is heavy, but that isn’t the primary reason for the weakened crappie population.
“It’s more about how our lakes have adapted to drought conditions over the past seasons,” Rister said. “Drier springs and clearer water conditions are less favorable to crappie spawns.
“The conditions we’ve had in recent years have been more favorable to bass production than to crappie, and when we’ve got more bass, there’s more predation on small crappie and that sets them back even more,” he said.
The big lakes, long famous for crappie of quality in quantity, have always produced all their own crappie. Stocking crappie might have seemed a ridiculous prospect at one time because of the huge size of the lakes and the amount of stocked fish it would take to have an impact in waters already awash with crappie.
Now, however, with crappie numbers in significant downturn because of environmental changes, several thousand young fish with a human-assisted start might just prove viable in carrying anglers through these tougher times.
I think the crappie stocking program would work great, KY lake is very similar to Lake Erie and Lake Michigan and other big lakes that all stock a "giving" species to attract tourism (whether it be hard core anglers, or a group of guys looking to catch a few hog, or a family trip). The best part about this idea is that the "gene pool" stays the same, which is critical, because most make the drive to pull in a 16"er. I know the tracking program works because they (biologists) track the salmon all the time in Lake Michigan. Heck, they take one look at the fish and say what hatchery it came from. That would also add to the tracking of the crappie (I know they put GPS units on them now but this would be on a much larger scale), making it easier to study the successfulness of the program. Taking steps to continue drawing in out-of- state anglers to a large body of water in this economy is a plus too. Lake Erie is a trip most fisherman, from all over the country are willing to take, and that means big $$$ to their ecomony, which is more important now than ever. Bottomline, it's cheaper to have a hatchery than lose the $$ because the limit is to small for the money to make the trip. It will be interesting how this plays out, but you don't know until you try. Thanks for posting this information. HT
Drop a few of those crappies over at T-ville Lake.
I wouldn't mind them doing just that :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Downwind
On another note : They (KDFWR) already has a "nursery" where they can get all the small Crappie they'd ever want ... it's called Cedar Creek Lake ;)
Now, I see by the proposal that Quacker posted, that they're considering stocking White Crappie only. That may not be the best way to go. They could stock Black Crappie, since the lake is more conducive to them, now (as evidenced by their numbers domination). They could have a Fish Derby on Cedar Creek Lake, during the spawn, and just have people bring their catch to the truck ... give away some prizes, and make a festival of it :p
Ain't much to catching a limit of 30, of the 6-8" size that's the majority of the Crappie in there ... just gotta put a jig down around some wood, in about 2-4ft of water, and wait for the Crappie to swim over and grab ahold .... you can watch them do it, since the water is gin clear at that time/depth. They'd be doing two lakes a big favor ... decreasing the overrun population of stunted fish at Cedar Creek, and supplying KY Lake with the same specie of Crappie that it's currently dominated by, anyway. Probably be cheaper than the hatchery proposal ;) ... and these fish are already old enough to spawn, since they're probably 3-5yrs old already, but just haven't grown as fast as they should. I would prefer that they leave any Blacknose, right there in Cedar Creek Lake, though ;)
OK ... I was just being facetious :D ... but, I do hope they can get the Crappie situations under control at Taylorsville, Cedar Creek, and KY Lake. With the possibility of Watts Bar Crappie being contaminated, and the expense of a trip to Weiss, I may have to fish closer to home ;)
... cp :cool:
CP, you have to keep in mind the "gene pool", and I agree 100% about the black crappie.Quote:
Originally Posted by crappiepappy