We noticed the same thing in trapnets last fall. Overall the crappie in Kentucky lake had below average weights, but the worst were the largest white crappie. Same deal as you described, thin with very white filets. Strangely the largest black crappie didn’t look as bad.

The odd part is that a 10 inch white and a 14 inch white should be eating the same thing. Same with a 12 inch black. The only theory is that those largest whites were reaching the end of their life cycle (we aged them to be quite old). It’s not something we had seen before so it’s tough to be sure but it’s a theory. Bioenergetically speaking it would also be tougher for a larger fish to maintain body mass, so there may be something there too.

Generally speaking the low weights are due to the predator/prey ratio being unbalanced. The numbers of shad are definitely down, but we don’t have any hard data on their populations. Are carp impacting our shad populations? Certainly. Have we reached the point of no return? Not in my opinion.

This will of course be a major topic of discussion on Thursday evening. As always thanks for sharing your concerns.