Any Signs Of...

[Highlander]

Has anyone been catching any younger crappies? Kind of worried that when the big slabbs tip thier bellies to the gods, the crappie fishery will no longer be! Any comments?

[Bass_Bully]

Thats a good question. I have caught some smaller crappies the last couple of years, if there youger or not I don't know. I try to only keep a half dozen or so, plenty of meat on them slabs.

[Twitter]

I released 2 crappies that were less than 10" last weekend and 1 the week before Christmas.

[Finlander]

You would have to think, even with not too ideal spawning conditions for crappies that they did'nt make any young'uns, would be stupid to think!

With the population of crappies in that lake, you can bet there is a motherload of young of the year crappies swimming around that giant bowl of water.

Just because you don't catch any does'nt mean there are'nt any!

Just think of the rest of the lake that does'nt get fished!

There running around there and 95% will die of old age!

There are billions of crappies in that lake and with that many, you know there making babies!

[Stud]

Can anyone take a guess at the estimated yearly harvest of crappie taken off the lake by anglers in the last 7 years. Or even in one year. I bet it's an unbelievable number, and just think there's that and more yet in the lake. Unreal. I Wonder what the Crappie to Walley ration is in the lake now?

[The Donk]

Perhaps with the fact that crappies spawn in shallower waters, the majority go to Lower Red? If that held true, the younger crappies wouldn't "leave the nest" for a year or two, as they normally don't. Just a thought, seeing as how the crappies move closer to shore as the hard water season comes to an end... maybe only 1/4 of the crappies move to the east end, and the rest go west!

[Bob/Mn]

Quote:

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Has anyone been catching any younger crappies? Kind of worried that when the big slabbs tip thier bellies to the gods, the crappie fishery will no longer be! Any comments?

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I made my first trip to Red Tuesday. Two of us limited out durning the day. The fish we caught went from 1 lb to 1 lb 6 oz. with one 3/4 lb released. The 10 fish I had weighted 13 lbs.

I fish a lot of soft water crappies and normally I would catch some some younger year class fish. I find it strange not catching some smaller fish.(No complaints) :-) Could it be that the Walleyes and Notherns are eating most of the crappie fry.

It would be interesting to hear if anyone is catching some smaller fish on Red.

[BarryG]

Usually when you catch one certain size crappie they will all be the same, they are a schooling fish that tends to stay with the same age class. You may just be fishing where the bigger crappie prefer to hang out! Down here when we get into smaller crappie we will start up the boat and move and hunt for the bigger ones.