Thread: Kayak Trip Report, Duck River Reservoir

Nice job! I had mentioned earlier tonight to my brother about wanting to try Duck sometime soon after reading some reports on here and now you post another good report from Duck. Definitely going soon. Good job especially fighting the wind.

They'll be back up shallow after the weekend, half had spawned out and had beat up fins, others look like there're ready to drop with swollen, red veins. Looks like there may be two year classes in the lake, many small 6 to 7 inch Crappie but 2/3 are 9 1/2 to 10 1/2 inches. You can't kept the rat bass off your hook. I must have toss back 50 that were 10 to 12 inches. The surprise was the nice gills. Not huge, 8 inches, maybe a little better but lots of them. Most new lakes are really good the first 5 or 6 years with a fish next to every stick. Then they slide off and balance out. My guess is this will be the place to fish the next few years for numbers.

How many little green sunfish did you catch? My only trip down there I caught lots of them.

What would you estimate the weight of those crappie to be? We caught a lot of them that were keeper size and I wish I had weighed some just to see but they are very thin. It wouldn't surprise me if the keepers that we caught averaged 4-6 ounces each. I didn't realize how small they were until I cleaned them.

I caught about half and half Bluegill/Redbreast and probable over a 100.

The Crappie are small, but I wouldn't say they're malnourished. I prefer to keep Crappie around 10 inches and they're usually about a half pound, maybe a little less. I throw back Crappie over 12 inches unless the freezer is empty. I'm addicted to the little crispy fillets!

Those little 10 inchers are sure easier to clean. I grill and bake mine so I like them a little larger. If I go back over there I'm going to weigh several and see what they average. I may be very wrong but I don't think a 10" fish from the DRR will weigh 1/2 pound.

I agree on the post spawn fish, but the ones that hadn't spawned we heavier and generally had thicker fillets also. I read they are stocking threadfin shad in the lake. I'm not sure how they will sustain a population since they die in water temperatures below 42 degrees, but they stay smaller than gizzard shad and spawn multiple times through the summer. If they can survive the winter or they restock them each spring it should create an incredible forage base for the lake especially the Crappie.

Crappie length to weight chart.

Boy Howdy