Public Meeting about Poor Crappie Fishing on Grand Lake

by Ivan Martin, Martin Guide Service

An estimated 120 interested parties attended a public meeting with the Oklahoma Wildlife Department to discuss the state of crappie fishing on Grand Lake Tuesday evening, March 18, 2008.

Jeff Boxrucker, Assistant Chief of Fisheries, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation out of Oklahoma City was the main speaker. Boxrucker spoke and answered questions for about an hour and a half.

Crappie may very well be the most popular fish caught on Grand Lake. They are responsible for bringing a lot of people into our area each year. However, as many of you know, our crappie fishing has been really bad the last five years. According to Boxrucker, this is due to our crappie population having declined to fairly low levels over the last several years.

Many of the locals have developed theories about the causes of this declining population including, "the catfish are eating the crappie; the birds are eating them; or the water level was going up and down too much during the crappie spawn season."

Boxrucker was able to explain it to my satisfaction with some science behind his reasoning. He says the reason we aren't catching very many crappie is that we simply do not have many crappie in the lake right now. The Wildlife Department folks have done some "electro-fishing" surveys with alarming results. They only caught about 200 crappie over a three week period when they would normally have that number in a single day.

Electro-fishing uses electricity to stun fish before they are caught. It is a common scientific survey method used to sample fish populations to determine abundance, density, and species composition. When performed correctly, electro-fishing results
in no permanent harm to fish, which return to their natural state in as little as two minutes after being stunned.

Boxrucker presented graphs showing the water inflow into the lake. Last year we had a lot of water inflow but in the five years before that we were in a drought or near drought condition with little water flowing into the lake. Crappie eat only plankton until they are about five inches long and then begin to eat other fish. With the lack of water inflow, the available plankton was reduced, which caused the fry to starve to death.

This is the first explanation that has made any sense to me. The fry of almost every kind of fish eat plankton when they are first born, including bass, white bass and crappie. Shad make plankton their diet all their lives.

According to Boxrucker, the other fish are more aggressive, even as small fry, than are crappie. If there is just so much food the crappie will not be getting enough and die. We had ample rain last year. So far this year it looks like there is going to be a sufficient inflow of water to sustain a healthy plankton crop. Remember, the lake level is not the question. It is the amount of water flow through the lake we experience each year.

We did have a fairly good spawn last year and hopefully will this year as well. If Mother Nature cooperates we should be catching more keepers next year. It takes about three years for a crappie to grow to 10 inches. Jeff also explained that in his opinion, stocking crappie does not work. It is too costly and the results are not worth it.

We received a real education about crappie and fisheries biology from Mr. Boxrucker and the other biologists there in the meeting. For myself, I must confess I went into the meeting being very skeptical about what I expected to hear. I was pleasantly surprised and benefited greatly from the meeting and I want to thank the Department of Wildlife for taking the time and trouble to come visit with us.