Forward facing sonar - fishing tech

[sandbur]

If it's a managed lake, I'd do some electrofishing and find out what you've got going on. Bass are a plague in a lake and can eat the hell out of everything. I think @sandbur could be on to something with poor recruitment. If the cover isn't there to protect the crappie when they hatch, the bass can clean them all up quickly.

When Upper Red was netted into a walleye collapse, the crappie population exploded and was something that will never happen again. Giant collapse in predators produced a legendary boom of crappie. I'd keep every bass in that lake and get a 100 yard load of sawdust and make compost out of all of them.

I suspect that in our natural lakes of that size, water temperature fluctuations, wind, erratic weather swings that last days in the spring, and other factors cause cycles in crappie populations. There are probably limited spawning sites compared to bigger lakes. Netting is not a factor in most smaller lakes.

Now we can add zebra mussels as a factor and I guess bass numbers are increasing.

Still crappie populations cycled for 50 years that I can remember.

 

[Mtyhunter]

If it's a managed lake, I'd do some electrofishing and find out what you've got going on. Bass are a plague in a lake and can eat the hell out of everything. I think @sandbur could be on to something with poor recruitment. If the cover isn't there to protect the crappie when they hatch, the bass can clean them all up quickly.

When Upper Red was netted into a walleye collapse, the crappie population exploded and was something that will never happen again. Giant collapse in predators produced a legendary boom of crappie. I'd keep every bass in that lake and get a 100 yard load of sawdust and make compost out of all of them.

I'm no expert for sure, but in my area of the US, the crappie don't have to go thru such a harsh winter. It's not uncommon for crappie to take over a bass pond, or small rivers. Most of our lakes are reservoirs, so we have alot of cover, and never seem to have a shortage of crappie.

I have caught small crappie, and used them for live bait for big bass and catfish. Yep, they'll definetely feed on them, but they can't seem to eat enough of them around here!

 

[AtomApple]

If it's a managed lake, I'd do some electrofishing and find out what you've got going on. Bass are a plague in a lake and can eat the hell out of everything. I think @sandbur could be on to something with poor recruitment. If the cover isn't there to protect the crappie when they hatch, the bass can clean them all up quickly.

When Upper Red was netted into a walleye collapse, the crappie population exploded and was something that will never happen again. Giant collapse in predators produced a legendary boom of crappie. I'd keep every bass in that lake and get a 100 yard load of sawdust and make compost out of all of them.

You sound like one of those walleye guys that blame everything else when you don’t catch fish. The Bass/Northern/Muskie, etc are all eating the walleye…as they pull bucket full after bucket full of walleye out yea4 after year.

It’s been proven that large predators like bass/norther/muskie eat the small “panfish” and help prevent over population which causes stunting.
The best way to have quality panfishing, is to have a quality food chain, with predators at the top.

 

[AtomApple]

I'm no expert for sure, but in my area of the US, the crappie don't have to go thru such a harsh winter. It's not uncommon for crappie to take over a bass pond, or small rivers. Most of our lakes are reservoirs, so we have alot of cover, and never seem to have a shortage of crappie.

I have caught small crappie, and used them for live bait for big bass and catfish. Yep, they'll definetely feed on them, but they can't seem to eat enough of them around here!

“
A single female crappie can lay
between 10,000 and over 60,000 eggs in a single spawning season. These eggs are laid in shallow water nests, and a female may spawn multiple times over the course of a few days, depositing eggs in different nests to ensure genetic diversity and higher hatching success.
In-Fisherman +1”
From Google AI.

 

[SD51555]

You sound like one of those walleye guys that blame everything else when you don’t catch fish. The Bass/Northern/Muskie, etc are all eating the walleye…as they pull bucket full after bucket full of walleye out yea4 after year.

It’s been proven that large predators like bass/norther/muskie eat the small “panfish” and help prevent over population which causes stunting.
The best way to have quality panfishing, is to have a quality food chain, with predators at the top.

@Mortensen said he wanted more crappies, and it appears the others do as well. This is a simple habitat problem. You have three options:

1. Kill more predators
2. Stock a ton of adult crappies
3. Increase quantity of small fish cover.

2 and 3 are infinitely harder than 1. They have identified their user requirements. Those are their options to meet it.

All those are going to be even more challenging on 200 acres. It’s hard enough to manage thru harvest on 1 acre.


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[Howboutthemdawgs]

4. Outlaw ffs. Crappie are ridiculously easy to catch when they are schooled up. The hard part is finding them. Not with FFS

 

[AtomApple]

Well it looks like my local private lake of which I'm a lot owner is going to a zero crappie policy for the next 3 years. Say it's fished out.

Would you say the number 1 predator is humans or large fish?

 

[SwampCat]

4. Outlaw ffs. Crappie are ridiculously easy to catch when they are schooled up. The hard part is finding them. Not with FFS

Some lakes in MS, Grenada in particular, but others as well - have seen reduction in crappie numbers and size - largely believed to be over harvest aided by FFS. They reduced bag limit quite a bit. I am also experiencing a reduced number of crappie where I fish. I cant say it is ffs, but folks are pounding the crappie in months no one used to catch them. Folks here did not realize crappie schooled big time in winter over deep water - 80’ or more - away from cover. Those fish are easy pickins with ffs - where before those fish were almost immune from harvest.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Some lakes in MS, Grenada in particular, but others as well - have seen reduction in crappie numbers and size - largely believed to be over harvest aided by FFS. They reduced bag limit quite a bit. I am also experiencing a reduced number of crappie where I fish. I cant say it is ffs, but folks are pounding the crappie in months no one used to catch them. Folks here did not realize crappie schooled big time in winter over deep water - 80’ or more - away from cover. Those fish are easy pickins with ffs - where before those fish were almost immune from harvest.

I heard about some of those issues in Mississippi. I’d say it has to be almost certainly the result of ffs. Granted side imaging is pretty damn deadly to located them but even then you have just located a school while moving. Doesn’t help you to pin point cast on their head and watch how they respond.