Thread: Health of Crappie (Need input please)

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.