Thread: Black Crappie Cometh

October has came to an end but I got a couple of days fishing in on the tail end of it.Water temperatures at the first of the month on Tellico Lake were at 72 degrees but have now fallen down to 67 degrees at months end. I have found the fish moving shallower and grouping up more as the month has went along but also have been catching more short fish. Saturday I fished crappie magnets shallow in the creeks and finished with thirty five crappie caught but disappointingly had only four fish to measure out of those.
Made a move on Sunday to similar areas on another section of the lake where I saw a decrease in numbers but a definite increase in size. Out of twenty three crappie caught, twelve of these fish would keep. A little more than half which was a step in the right direction. Several of these were black crappie and I took note of how much healthier and chunky they were over the thin white crappie I have been used to catching on this lake for so long.
When I first started seeing more black crappie over the past few yrs, in this white dominate lake, I thought perhaps they just had a good spawn year. Now that I'm starting to see thick shoulders on these black crappie, Well, Now I'm thinking perhaps something else is going on here. They appear to be eating better than the white crappie for some reason. Any of you all happen to be a biologist with perhaps an explanation? I don't know maybe its all in my head. Anyhow if its and overall improvement, I say let the black crappie cometh.