Great weather helping crappie fishing this winter

Sunday, January 14, 2007

With the unseasonable winter weather to start off the new year, fishermen are finding hitting the lakes can be rewarding as the crappie fishing has been good for the past several weeks and anglers like Robert Sawyer have been enjoying it. He has been catching crappie from the Lake of the Ozarks as well as from Truman and Stockton lakes using small jigs.

Sawyer said, "Of all the panfish the crappie may just be the most universally sought fish around, I call the crappie the All-American fish."

It's true, in rivers, lakes and small waters throughout the country swim millions of this prolific panfish, providing great sport and a food source for thousands of anglers in every corner of America.

There is a lot to like about crappie. It isn't that these delectable sweet white fish are hard to catch. Quite the contrary. Find one crappie and you are liable to catch lots of them.

Learning to locate crappie is the key to success. Contrary to common belief, crappie do not prefer any set of environmental conditions. They simply adapt to whatever conditions the lake, river or big impoundment provides.

There are two species of crappie -- the black and the white crappie. Normally the black prefers clear water, while the white is found in both clear and discolored waters.

Black crappie put up a better fight on hook and line than their white cousins. They also grow slower, but live longer than white crappie.

The white crappie thrive in slow moving rivers as well as both natural and man-made lakes. They tend not to school as tightly as the blacks.

The record white crappie was taken last year in a Missouri lake and weighed 5 pounds. The world record black crappie was a 6-pounder caught in 1969 in Louisiana.

Both species of crappie belong to the sunfish family and their markings can vary depending on the seasons and water clarity. The populations of both species can fluctuate greatly in most waters.

When spawning conditions are ideal, and there is ample food supply, a large brood of crappie will survive. In years to come, the dominant year class will become cannibalistic, eating it's own young and devouring any available food which young crappie could use.

Each spring the young are decimated by the dominate year class -- until that class is reduced by old age or other predator fish. The cycle then repeats. The crappie matures in it's second year, and a half-pound black crappie is capable of producing 20,000 eggs and the white about half that number.

Baitfish comprise the majority of the adult crappies diet. Apparently, a high protein minnow diet is essential for growing slab crappie. In Missouri lakes the crappie prey heavily on young gizzard or thread shad if available. The result can be big fish and a lot of them.

Crappie are the All-American fish. They are so popular that crappie are known by several common names like papper mouth, speckled perch, calico bass and strawberry bass just to name a few.

A recent National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Associated Recreational documented that 12 million anglers fish for crappie. That represents nearly 40 percent of all fishermen over the age of 16. The survey also showed that, on the average, each fisherman spends 20 days a year fishing for crappie meaning an impressive well over 225,000,000 fishing days are devoted to catching crappie each year.

You don't need a fancy boat or expensive gear to catch them. However, you're just liable to find anglers in $20,000 bass boats pulling in crappie as well as the legion of bank fishermen.

They live in ponds, rivers, lakes and reservoirs -- all kinds of places. They thrive in every kind of cover from grass to brush to trees. You van catch crappie in 100-degree heat or cut through the ice to catch them.

Crappie can be super aggressive and put up a decent fight on ultralight gear, and they also taste great on the dinner plate.

What more could a fisherman ask for?

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