Page 9 - Crappie NOW | September 2015

Photos by Doug Markham

back to 1988, the idea was without precedent.
“Most other state agencies thought it was
kind of crazy to stock crappie because at the
time most lakes had sustainable populations,”
said Bobby Wilson, TWRA Chief of Fisheries.
“In Tennessee however, our biologists were
becoming concerned about the continued
lack of successful recruitment of crappie in
some of our reservoirs. So they decided to
experimentally stock crappie into a few of
them to see if it helped.”
Tennessee biologists believed that
while many reservoirs had good habitat and
plenty of forage to support good populations
of adult crappie, inconsistent spawning
conditions and consequently inconsistent
recruitment were resulting in highly cyclical
or generally struggling fish populations. If
fingerling stockings could augment natural
spawns and those fish could be recruited into
populations, TWRA biologists believed they
could substantially lessen those downward
dips.

Experimental Stocking Efforts
The very first experimental stockings
were into Norris and Watts Bar lakes, with a surveys and therefore could assess recruitment
combined 190,000 crappie fingerlings. Soon of the stocked fish into the population.
after, though, TWRA decided to shift efforts The answer was clear and came
to Center Hill, where spawning success had quickly, and the news was good. Center Hill
fallen off, and a once-popular fishery was experienced a crappie revival, beginning a
suffering. couple of years after that first stocking, and
“I can remember when I was in graduate fish that had a black “racing strike” dominated
school at Tennessee Tech University back the catch. Stocking clearly worked at Center
in the late 1970s. We would crappie fish in Hill, and more than two decades later, it still
Center Hill and do pretty well,” Wilson said. works.
“For whatever reason the crappie population Program Development
declined severely in the 1980s, and so we Following the proven success at Center
decided to try and stock them there.” Hill, TWRA began expanding and refining the
Biologists decided to use blacknose crappie stocking program. Center Hill needs
crappie, a strain of black crappie that has ongoing stocking because natural reproduction
a distinctive black stripe that runs down the is consistently low. In many reservoirs, the fish
center of its head. By stocking only blacknose are used to augment poor year classes and
crappie, biologists could easily distinguished lessen the severity of cycles that have always
stocked fish from naturally spawned fish when just been accepted in crappie populations.
they conducted netting or electroshocking More so than with many species, crappie

9 Crappie NOW September 2015