Do Crappie School by Year Class? Can a Year Class be Decimated?

[whizkids]

A five year old crappie is an old timer. How many year classes will school togeather? Can a complete year class be lost or caught from a lake? Is there a certain age where a large crappie will basically go his on way rather than hang with the crowd?
For example Lake Rhodhiss, here in Western NC yielded a tremendous amount of 12 inch fish in 2001. There being no size or creel limit thousands were caught. One group told me they caught over 5000 12 inch fish that year. In 2002 there were a few being caught. In 2003 and 2004 they were few and far between.
In 2003 there were a lot of small 6 to 8 inch fish caught. In 2004 still a lot of small fish being caught, but rare to catch a 10 inch fish. This lake is small, but is a good fishery with copious amounts of shad. It also has a lot of laydowns as well as underwater man made brush piles.
Still, I do not want to limit the discussion to this one lake but rather to draw upon any research or personal observations relevant to the thread topic.

[Darryl Morris]

That's why I've tried to talk my older son into becoming a Fisheries Biologist. If he did, I think he could take care of ole dad and his fishing needs later in years.

I don't know, but I do think that the question you asked is at the core of the puzzle for those who do fish management. There are so many variables that no two lake environment situations are the same. Perhaps, if the powers to be really knew the answer, conservation and management wouldn't be an issue at all. Assuming that we fishermen could negatively impact a year-class of crappie in a single fishery, wouldn't that make it all the more important to ensure a plentiful, successful spawn each year? Or, is that why we have hatcheries so we don't have to close the season? Hmmmm. In the case of Lake Norfork (north central arkansas) The crappie were nearly all gone. They built some habitat and started stocking the lake, then as luck would have it, the lake was bless with high water during the spawn. That one spawn, I believe, made all the difference. Lake Charles, a smaller impoundment has always produced descent crappie but the numbers according to studies had fallen dramatically. They put a length limit on and stocked the lake. It'll be interesting to see what the results are.

[Darryl Morris]

just watched an In-Fisherman show that spoke about the pros and cons on slot limits. Makes since to me. The slot is tailored to producing and maintaining certain sized fish. I've also heard that releasing the larger female during the spawn will increase the quantity in the hatch, plus releasing the males protecting a bed helps the future population. Boy, that's awefully had though. Sure do love daubing for those shallow water crappie.

[CrappieOutlaw]

We try to throw back the large crappie, the smaller ones seem to me to be better eating anyway. I'm not sure if crappie school by size or not either. But, I do know that there are docks, trees, and stretches of shoreline that do hold bigger fish than others.

[Moose1am]

I have read that they school by age class or size. And when I get into a school of small crappie that seems to be all that I catch. Only a few times did I run into the bigger crappie and that was in Oct after the water had cooled down into the 50's.

One some lakes that the Corp of Engineers control for and manage to prevent floods the crappie spawn can be hurt by rising and lowering of the waters. If the waters are high when the crappie are ready to spawn and the corps drop the lake level by 5 ft in a week or so that may interupt the spawn and damage the young crappie or the eggs.

And nature runs in cycles. Predator Prey populations often show cyclic populations. For a few years the Prey population will increase and then it may crash to low levels in one year and then slowly build back up. The predator populations will grow but lag behind the increased prey populations. But when the prey populations declines the predators also will decline. It's must a matter of food supply being there for more predators so that they can raise more young. But when the prey populations crash the predator population also crash as their food supply vanishes over night some time. Lemorings and the Lynx is a good example of this predator prey population cycles.