Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) fisheries biologists have been busy this fall sampling crappie across the state.In North Central Arkansas, the biologists sampled Bull Shoals Lake and focused on the Jimmy Creek and Mountain Creek arms of the reservoir. During a previous creel survey, crappie were the second most sought after species on Bull Shoals Lake behind black bass.
Crappie sampling took place during September, October and November by setting multiple nets in areas where the fish were likely to be moving during the fall. Nets were set without bait, as the crappie follow the net up into funneled hoops making it hard for them to find their way back out. Nets were set for 48 hours in each creek arm, each month. The crappie were measured, weighed and a subsample will be aged at a later date.
The data collected from these samples will help biologists assess the health and population of crappie in the lake. This data will also be added to a database that tracks the changes in the population to monitor whether regulations need to be updated to keep crappie fishing at its best.
Over the three months of sampling this year, biologists caught 576 crappie. The sizes ranged from 4.3 inches to 13.8 inches, and the average size was 9.5 inches and 0.5 pounds. Biologists have not yet aged fish from this year’s sample, but previous aging has told them it takes about three years for a crappie to reach a harvestable size of 10 inches. Anglers have had a good year of crappie fishing and have recently been catching fall crappie using jigs and minnows around the AGFC brush piles.
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