Thread: Interesting podcast on crappie

Sounds interesting

Gonna check it out.

Originally Posted by colayn

I believe a lot of folks would be interested in this podcast:

Southern Waters Fishing
Most recent episode " Is Over Fishing Hurting Crappie Population w/
Dr Steve Sammons
Very informative

what was his conclusion? If he is like most biologists they say fisherfolk arn't biggest issue in crappie numbers.

Lots of good info there. Sounds like low spawn success causes more problems for crappie than anything else on most major reservoirs which equates to a total loss of a year class a lot of times. We've all saw fish bedding then go back a few weeks later & the area where the bedding was taking place was high & dry. I've saw this on Cumberland several times.

Originally Posted by Les Young

Lots of good info there. Sounds like low spawn success causes more problems for crappie than anything else on most major reservoirs which equates to a total loss of a year class a lot of times. We've all saw fish bedding then go back a few weeks later & the area where the bedding was taking place was high & dry. I've saw this on Cumberland several times.

That was something that surprised me..... I thought a dry year equals stable lake levels equals better spawn but that was not what he found in the studies. I found it to be a very interesting podcast

Originally Posted by colayn

That was something that surprised me..... I thought a dry year equals stable lake levels equals better spawn but that was not what he found in the studies. I found it to be a very interesting podcast

Yep I was surprised when he said crappie spawn better in wet high water years better than drys ones. Kind of proves that if the water level was left alone there would be a lot better spawn pretty much every year than when they drop it like a rock like most corps of engineer lakes get done. I’d say most fish would do better.

Interesting information. Thanks for sharing

Originally Posted by Les Young

Yep I was surprised when he said crappie spawn better in wet high water years better than drys ones. Kind of proves that if the water level was left alone there would be a lot better spawn pretty much every year than when they drop it like a rock like most corps of engineer lakes get done. I’d say most fish would do better.

They might, or they might not ... but the main factor is the COE lakes are "flood control" lakes & they have no great interest in what the fish are put thru on their account.
My memory ain't "all that", but I don't really remember many "dry years" around spawning time. I think a lot of people have the mistaken idea that Crappie all spawn in shallow water (<5fow) ... and I've seen times where they were spawning in 8-10fow (some not 100yds from those spawning in 2-3fow). I've seen this happen at Herrington, Taylorsville, Green, and Watts Bar (Tenn).

Now, I have seen years when the water was high when the fish started spawning, and the water levels were dropped back to the pre-set levels the COE goes by ... leaving shallow water beds high & dry. I've seen the opposite of that happen, too.