Craig Johnson, the District Fisheries Biologist at El Dorado, has agreed to monitor this site and answer questions, as time allows, to what is happening on our lakes. WELCOME CRAIG!!!! <*)}}}><

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You'll see the difference,,,on the end of your line!

Glad to have you on the site!

Good Deal.

Craig I have a question or two. I am sure the sampling numbers will be coming out shortly giving us the 2010 forecasts. But I am impatient. What lakes do you see on the rise for crappie in 2010. Also how is Douglas State Lake north of Baldwin doing in terms of fish growth etc.

Welcome Craig

Welcome,

Q #1. Is Hillsdale Res scheduled to get wipers? If not Why? Thanks...

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It's not duck season so I have to do something...

wlcome

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The fishing was good,it was the catching that was bad

Hello Craig. Perry has a HUGE problem. Are we going to see a fish kill due to the shad being too big for the crappie to eat? This time of year we see fish full of shad. Not so on perry.

Chadku,

Fall test netting is just wrapping up around Kansas and most of the fish bios are still working on entering their fish catch data so I don't have access to all the most up to date data for Kansas crappie yet. As you mentioned, the 2010 Fishing Forecast will be coming out soon and it will have population info for all popular Kansas sportfish. I still have a lot of data to enter otherwise I would give you a run down of my lakes!

I called Richard Sanders and asked him your question about Douglas SFL. He said overall the lake is in good condition but it will need a couple more years before the crappie population offers good angling opportunities. The channel catfish population sustained heavy pressure and as a result density decreased (but remains good) and many of the larger cats were harvested by anglers. The lake has good numbers of panfish (bluegill, redear sunfish, and greensunfish) with some larger fish available. The bass population is improving and currently there are high numbers of fish but most are still small. Black crappie were stocked in the Fall '08 and it will take a few more years for the crappie to reach sizes of interest to anglers.

Sabertooth Crappie,

I spoke with Kirk Tjelmeland about the Perry crappie and shad. He said that Perry's gizzard shad spawn was quite early this year which resulted in the much larger than desired sizes of shad during most of the year. It is unlikely that there will be a crappie fish kill due to the larger than normal shad, but this scenario doesn't provide prime growing conditions for crappie (or white bass or other sportifsh) as there is less forage available to the smaller predators. There may be some thin fish come spring time but they will recover quickly when forage returns.

Thanks Craig. Really appreciate your willingness to help out and answer our questions.