DNR Crappie Surveys (Skinner and Big Lake)

[tsdpurdue]

The DNR has just finished crappie sampling on 2 lakes in Noble County. Each survey consisted of 4 trap net lifts. All fish were measured to the nearest tenth inch.

Sampling Dates:
Skinner: 4/18-4/20
Big: 4/25-4/27


Survey Results Below:

Skinner:

Black crappie
Total Collected: 1647
Avg Size: 6.9 inches
Min Size: 4.1 inches
Max Size: 17.2 inches

White crappie
Total Collected: 277
Avg Size: 7.7 inches
Min Size: 5.5 inches
Max Size: 13.0 inches

Muskie:
Total: 16
Max: 42.0 inches long


Big Lake:

Black crappie
Total Collected: 74
Avg Size: 11.0 inches
Min Size: 7.3 inches
Max Size: 11.9 inches

[fishcrazy]

Wow. So cool that the DNR does these surveys on our fisheries. Thanks for posting boilermaker.  Holy cow that's a big crappie

[Roll tide]

DNR did a survey on Crooked lake out side of Angola, has anyone herd there finding or where I can look ? Nets were in the spot we fish for walleye a few weeks back.

[rkoomler]

DNR did a survey on Crooked lake out side of Angola, has anyone herd there finding or where I can look ? Nets were in the spot we fish for walleye a few weeks back.
[/quote


I think that was a pike survey.  I heard low numbers of pike but a couple were sizeable.  Didnt hear of any other species being caught. 

[taxid]

Skinner is interesting. Lots of small crappies but once in a long while a really big one. Typically in a lake with small crappies they are all small. Why is that?

Do you know Tsdpurdue? Anybody else?

[crappiecrusher34]

Are biggest crappies in state right now come from lakes that are dinked out. Patoka, Monroe examples. U pull hundreds out then all the sudden two pounder on. In my   opinion its BC there's not enough forge for little fish. In those lakes a crappie has to get to10 to 12 inches long to be able to handle the large shad in lake. It then seam's they explode in size after that. Both of the lakes mentioned above have crappies with extra large mouth's on them. Crappies are know to developed different mouths size for food in lake over time. And by the way 17 half inch black would be a slab of a lifetime.

[MC_angler]

Skinner is interesting. Lots of small crappies but once in a long while a really big one. Typically in a lake with small crappies they are all small. Why is that?

Do you know Tsdpurdue? Anybody else?

It's called density-dependent growth. A lake can only support a given biomass of fish. Let's use a simple example - 1000 pounds in a small lake. If the lake can support 1000 pounds of crappies, you could have 500 two-pound crappies, 1000 one-pound crappies, or you could have 5000 crappies that weigh 1/5th of a pound apiece. They are all competing for the same amount of food in either case


A slightly more complex example in a small lake or pond - if you have bass and bluegills in it, if there are a ton of bass, they will all be small. However, they eat the heck out of all the small bluegills, so the bluegill that do escape predation by the bass have much less competition for food from other bluegills, so they will grow large

And vice versa, if there are a million bluegills, they'll all be stunted, and there will be fewer, but much larger bass

[taxid]

Are biggest crappies in state right now come from lakes that are dinked out. Patoka, Monroe examples. U pull hundreds out then all the sudden two pounder on. In my   opinion its BC there's not enough forge for little fish. In those lakes a crappie has to get to10 to 12 inches long to be able to handle the large shad in lake. It then seam's they explode in size after that. Both of the lakes mentioned above have crappies with extra large mouth's on them. Crappies are know to developed different mouths size for food in lake over time. And by the way 17 half inch black would be a slab of a lifetime.

Thanks Crappiecrusher.

Yes 17 1/2 inches is a slab. I have an 18  in the showroom that isn't being picked up from the West Lakes chain (Jones, Waldron, Steinbarger, Tamarack.) Sure hope the guys gets over here at some point.

That chain is where I get my biggest ones in to mount. Three now in the 18 inch size just over 3 lbs. More 16's and 17's. Most are natural hybrids between whites and blacks.

I also did a 17 out of Skinner a couple years ago for a member here.

I'd post a pic of a 20 inch out of Limekiln near Helmer/Hudson but my flash player is out of date and refuses to load up. Hopefully later when I talk to my technician (wife).

Here it is. My apologies if it was posted here before: (3.25 lbs.)

[taxid]

It's called density-dependent growth. A lake can only support a given biomass of fish. Let's use a simple example - 1000 pounds in a small lake. If the lake can support 1000 pounds of crappies, you could have 500 two-pound crappies, 1000 one-pound crappies, or you could have 5000 crappies that weigh 1/5th of a pound apiece. They are all competing for the same amount of food in either case


A slightly more complex example in a small lake or pond - if you have bass and bluegills in it, if there are a ton of bass, they will all be small. However, they eat the heck out of all the small bluegills, so the bluegill that do escape predation by the bass have much less competition for food from other bluegills, so they will grow large

And vice versa, if there are a million bluegills, they'll all be stunted, and there will be fewer, but much larger bass

I aware of what you say but it doesn't explain the odd really large fish of a species while the rest are stunted.

[MC_angler]

whoops missed the second part of that question. I would guess it is just an odds/freak of nature thing, and maybe fish that somehow beat the odds and escape a certain size, and they can get big enough to take advantage of forage that is too large for 99% of the other fish in the lake, so they can get massive

[taxid]

whoops missed the second part of that question. I would guess it is just an odds/freak of nature thing, and maybe fish that somehow beat the odds and escape a certain size, and they can get big enough to take advantage of forage that is too large for 99% of the other fish in the lake, so they can get massive

Makes sense to me.