I don't know if you guys have met the assistant biologist Nick Simpson, but he handles the Lake Barkley data and put this together for you.

At Lake Barkley we set nets at Little River, Donaldson Bay, Crooked Creek, and Eddy Bay. We had a good catch of young of the year white crappie and an average catch of young of the year black crappie. Surprisingly we had below average catches of age 1 white and black crappie when compared to our long-term averages going back to 1985. Although this catch was not horrible, we had expected higher catches of age 1 fish since our young of the year catches were near record highs in 2019, but this happens sometimes depending on over winter survival. Catch rates of older fish were all below average. Only 2 of the black crappie we aged were older than age-2 and only 7 of the white crappie we aged were older than age-2. The oldest fish from Barkley this year was 5 years old. This means that fish from the decent spawns in 2014 and 2015 are mostly gone. Crappie spawns in 2016 and 2017 were poor. Without many fish from the 2014-2017 year classes left, this leaves us with fish from an average spawn in 2018 and a below average spawn in 2019 in addition to young of the year fish from 2020. Most of the fish from 2018 should be keepers come this spring, but it could be tough fishing.

Some good news at Barkley is that fish are growing fast. The average 2 year old crappie was 10.7 inches this fall, and several of the age 1 fish we aged had already reached 10 inches. Relative weights (how plump a fish is based on its length) of keeper crappie look very good and are an improvement over last year. The large amount of bait in the lake this year definitely helped fatten up the larger fish. White crappie have had much more success than black crappie during our last three spawns at Lake Barkley, so expect to target white crappie the next couple of years.

Although sometimes we see similar spawning patterns in both lakes, we also have years when they do not match up very well. This can be a good thing since while fishing may be tough in one lake, it may be much better in the other lake. They are of course different lakes in terms of water clarity and depth and cover, which is likely why we see so many more white crappie in Barkley than in Kentucky. The difference in the ratios of both species probably contributes to why we sometimes see different patterns of spawning success in each lake. I know a lot of you have gotten more flexible in your fishing tactics due to carp, but it may also be useful to experiment with different areas of the lakes.