Thread: Kick in the gut Guys!

Originally Posted by mrdux

If an issue was affecting the horse industry, the powers that be would find truckloads of cash to fight it. This issue is so far just affecting us in some area not covered by the golden triangle so it isn't important yet. It will be when the revenue from tourism dries up.

Amen!


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

While Kentucky seems to be aggressively working on this problem, if the adjoining states don’t put as much effort into it, then it’s all for naught! You can’t have one guy letting 8 pointers walk, and only 50yards away another guy shooting them.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Here's some pics from Yesterday at Blood River.

1st pic is a healthy Black crappie female with a good egg sac.

2nd pic is a skinny White crappie female with small translucent egg sac.

3rd pic is a healthy White crappie female with a good egg sac.

Most had good egg sacs from bright yellow to mushy white. Noticing a few more than usual with underdeveloped sacs. They look like females caught in May after spawn. This could be due to abnormally low water temps for the delay in egg production. These fish have been stressed all year with poor shad population, cold extended winter weather and a 12 ft lake level swing in a 2 week period.


Sent from my SM-G930V using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Originally Posted by Nutbush

While Kentucky seems to be aggressively working on this problem, if the adjoining states don’t put as much effort into it, then it’s all for naught! You can’t have one guy letting 8 pointers walk, and only 50yards away another guy shooting them.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

I agree, it would be great if surrounding states could add some resources to the research. It may not be a problem for some now but if a solution isn't found it could soon be.

At this point I believe the best remedy will be either biological or genetic (think of replicating the virus that caused the big die off a year or so ago). There are SOOO many now I don't think Ky plan on netting their way out the problem.

No Plankton = Thin Crappie

Asian Carp is the guilty party.

May get worse before it gets better

Originally Posted by Amartinbio

Hey guys, sorry if I’ve somehow given the impression that crappie weights weren’t down. Or that they weren’t down due to baitfish being down. They are down, and it is due to the predator prey ratio being unbalanced. Bass weights are also down. Has the competition with Asian carp affected our gizzard shad? Certainly. Are crappie weights the lowest they’ve ever been? No. This does not mean that we don’t have a problem, but it does mean that I’m not panicking. Carp are the biggest threat we have by far which is why controlling their population is a huge priority.

I am always interested in the opinions and concerns of anglers regardless of whether I want to hear it or not.

This topic will be a major component of the meeting on Thursday evening.

As for egg condition, there is some precedent for reduced egg production when fish are starving or stressed. It’s one of the theories for “density dependent population control”. It’s never really been proven in crappie, (they tend to overpopulate if given the chance so they at least aren’t very good at controlling their own population numbers). The average ky lake crappie female has about 120,000 eggs. (Less than the average Asian carp which usually has about 200,000 in other populations. not really sure where the 1 million number came from...). It doesn’t take many crappie eggs, but it does take the right conditions.

As for carp spawning and crappie eating them, we still haven’t observed any individuals in the lake from a 2016 or 2017 year class of carp, although we know from carp egg weights that they at least attempted to spawn. The 2015 year class is still extremely abundant unfortunately. They need high flows to spawn and unfortunately this year looks like a high flow year. We absolutely do not need another successful carp spawn in the rivers or the lake so I’m really hoping this rain calms down before water temps rise. If anyone observes small carp in stomachs or cast nets please take a photo. This information is crucial.

Hopefully those that are interested will be able to make it out to the meeting to discuss carp efforts and other issues. If not, send me an email or give me a call anytime to discuss the issues. Apologies to those who felt they weren’t being heard.
-Adam

What age class was the die off from last year? From the hundreds (thousands) I saw they all appeared to be of the same 16" or so length. I would think those would be a relatively young age class.

That die off was exclusively the 2015 year class. I’m not aware of any adult fish being affected, but there may have been a few.
As for Kentucky state university’s involvement,
I’m not 100% on Kentucky state’s involvement in the carp problem. I’m thinking they were sent samples during the fish kills but I’m not sure.
I know they do some interesting things with breeding and aquaculture of other species such as paddlefish and even crappie.