Habitat is Key

[Darryl Morris]

Merry Christmas everyone. Wow, what a year it has been. I hope and pray your year has been a blessed one or at least you have been able to find the positive side of it.

Here's my holiday gift to you all. I do my best to be helpful here on crappie.com but the info I give is solely based on my experience where I fish. No doubt, there are many others more versed in techniques and environments varied from mine. But if I know nothing, I know this -- HABITAT IS KEY. Habitat is different from a "fish attractor." Habitat attracts fish but also serves to protect and propagate our favorite fish. The babies have a place to live, eat and keep from being eaten. Such will produce great creels next year and into the next generations. I can't wait to take my future grandkids fishing with me sitting on my lap - diaper and all, lol. Gotta start'em young, lol.

Okay, so much for the sermon and proof's in the pudd'in. So far this year, Jerry Blake and myself with the help of some of the best friends in the world, Jim Erickson and Charlie Knabe, we have sunk over 300 bamboo brushpiles - (standup bamboo crappie condos, flat mats, mega mats and laydowns - http://www.actionfishingtrips.com/habitat.htm. That's over 6,000 stalks of bamboo which equates to over 240,000 cubic feet of habitat. We have placed this cover at all depths for the crappie -- deep for summer and winter, midranges for springtime staging and the fall feeding frenzy and a variety of shallow depths specifically for the spawn. We have been working closely with the AGFC Fisheries Biologists for that region and because of the effort they stocked 225,000 blacknose crappie. And, we hope they will receive a grant to do a radio telemetry study on the crappie in the future.

I can't communicate to you in words just how convinced I am that good habitat is essential to your crappie population. Here's a few pictures and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.

[Wiskers]

Glad to hear some states will spend some $'s on a Crappie stocking program. Here in Ky. They'll stock Trout, Strippers, Bass, everything but Crappie. They just reduced our limit on Ky. Lake to 20 due to a declining population. Crappie fishing is a big part of the economy on Ky. Lake, but all the state wants to do is milk the resource & put nothing back. I also put out habitat but you can only do so much.

Maybe I need to start fish'n down there.

[plantdr]

Thankyou for sharing your knowledge! I am a believer in bamboo. You also find out who your fishing buddys really are with projects like this. This really is Conservation at it's best.

[FalconSmitty]

so true D...I just wish I could find some help like that. I have near 50 in the lake all but 6 I did alone. Well worth my efforts. I can catch fish on boo I dropped 3 years ago. I have only covered one huge creek arm with them. I still have the rest of the lake to drop. Wish I had several people to help me.. Guess I could go out front of home depot but me no speak espaniol..

[Jerry Blake]

It's hard to find good help these days! Jim has been helping us put cover in our lakes for several years and Charlie joined our "Boo Crew" this year. They've put in a lot of hours in some tuff working conditions without expecting anything in return. Since we started working with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission earlier this year we've been able to put a lot more time and effort into creating habitat and have really taken advantage of Jim and Charlie and their willingness to work with us. We take them fishing whenever we get the chance but they're really helping us out then too by putting fish "in the box" so we can keep current pictures on our websites when we don't have "paying" trips for a few days.

We put the hurt on that bamboo patch and a few others this year. The area where that scrap pile in Darryl's picture and another 100-feet or so to the left and several hundred feet beyond it used to be solid bamboo so dense you couldn't walk through it. For every good stalk of bamboo there's one or two dead or thin ones that have to be cut and move out of the way.

Thanks Jim and Charlie, we really appreciate your friendship and all your hard work!!!!

[Kit Papermouth]

The latest issue of Crappie World says there still is a debate between biologist on whether shallow water cover increases the success of crappie broods as they are palegic and go out away from cover and feed on plankton in the middle of the lake when they are fingerlings.

I believe that any structure provided will be used for protection from predators until the fish are large enough to feed on minnows and shad. The proof will be in the pudding. I've started placing tight structure on the shorelines in prime spawning areas on TRL. Time will tell.

Good work Jerry, Darryl, Jim and Charlie. The best deeds are done without recognition from those who benefit from the gifts of your own labor.

God Bless You Fellers!

G>

[Jerry Blake]

The latest issue of Crappie World says there still is a debate between biologist on whether shallow water cover increases the success of crappie broods as they are palegic and go out away from cover and feed on plankton in the middle of the lake when they are fingerlings.

I believe that any structure provided will be used for protection from predators until the fish are large enough to feed on minnows and shad. The proof will be in the pudding. I've started placing tight structure on the shorelines in prime spawning areas on TRL. Time will tell.

Good work Jerry, Darryl, Jim and Charlie. The best deeds are done without recognition from those who benefit from the gifts of your own labor.

God Bless You Fellers!

G>

Thanks Kit:

I didn't read that article but I have read that crappie fry are palegic when there isn't adequate cover for them to hide in. They can school like shad where the school is the cover - some are sacrificed so that others can live. I think they are probably more likely to school and roam when the water is more stained or dingy, which provides some cover.

From what I've seen all sizes of crappie in our clear lakes - with plenty of walleye, stripers, white bass, black bass, gar, catfish and others regularly looking for an easy meal - are more likely to hang around some type of cover than they are to cruise in the wide open. If we run a seine through the grass in a spawning cove a month or two after they spawn we'll load up on small crappie, bream and bass so at least some of them aren't real fond of being palegic.

Another benefit of natural cover is that it provides habitat for insects and their larva, amphibians, crustaceans and minnows that crappie feed on, which increases the available food source for crappie.

[Kit Papermouth]

Jerry,
Your synopsis makes perfect sense to me. If there isn’t cover, then the crappie would school for safety.
On Table Rock the old growth cover has lost many of their branches leaving standing timber with few limbs.
The shore lines are barren with the exception of what the locals have put out or what has settled during the draw down.
The Crappie do not relate as close to structure as they do in most other lakes I’ve fished. We get a ton of open water hits.
Water in the Tributaries is a light stain (Visibility to 2 ft). The main lake is typically clear (Visibility from 2 ft to 8 ft)

Is Greeson much like Table Rock in its water clarity and lack of natural structure?

I'm looking for hope that the crappie population, with help, can recover to the level the old timers have talked about. According to the old timers, the two main changes are the lack of structure and a higher level of fishing pressure.

Water levels are controlled better in the spring than in decades past. The Corps actually works with MDC on maintaining levels in the spring.

Thanx Blake!

[NIMROD]

Glad to hear some states will spend some $'s on a Crappie stocking program. Here in Ky. They'll stock Trout, Strippers, Bass, everything but Crappie. They just reduced our limit on Ky. Lake to 20 due to a declining population. Crappie fishing is a big part of the economy on Ky. Lake, but all the state wants to do is milk the resource & put nothing back. I also put out habitat but you can only do so much.

Maybe I need to start fish'n down there.

I can understand your feelings. Here we are on a Corps lake and they built a bunch of large brushpiles during the last drawadown. I was told the AGFC was suppose to maintain them. Well it's getting close to 10 years ago and they are just about gone. I have had folks question me as to why I build so many brushpiles and stakebeds. Their idea is you can't fish them all , cause I build them year round when I have time. Can't hurt and should help the fishery.

[EarlG]

That is really some great work ya'll are doing. Lots of fun too. As far as old timers saying it used to be better, that's about like the "they were biting yesterday" stories.

Another thing I've noticed is the crappie fingerlings don't all go out into the lake. I catch 2" to 3" crappies with a castnet off my dock. Yep, I throw them back in.