Crappie

[Buckshotdad1960]

Ozark trout fish,

Ok, let me get this straight!

1. You don’t really care that much and it’s no big deal.

2. It’s ok now to take a few fish.

3. And you don’t want to start a war.

So…What am I suppose to do with the rest of my day! LOL

I could of had a V8!

Yeah, let’s hope that I never get into a conversation like that but if I do I’m trying it! Why not? I’m getting a ticket anyway! I might as well have a good story to tell about it! LOL

Focus Grasshopper! Focus!

[Buckshotdad1960]

Ozarkfishman,

Again, another interesting post. You have a good eye at reading water. Throw in a little trial and error and your catching fish! Your right not all ponds are created equal. When I was a kid first starting out I fished a lot of ponds. I honed my fishing and trespassing skills to an art with ponds before the age of 12. LOL Did I say trespassing? Like you it was all I had at the time. I moved on to creeks and rivers as I grew older. This is where my true love for the outdoors lies. From ankle deep creeks to the Mississippi I have fished a lot of moving water and have trained my eye to read current. Having lived in MN I have had the opportunity to fish a lot of lakes and have been successful at it. Lakes are really nothing more than over sized ponds, just larger and more complexed depending on the size. However for me nothing can peak my interest like moving water. It’s alive and ever changing. If my three children who are now grown have learned anything from me it is to respect moving water. Moving water is unforgiving. It can be your friend one day and the next your enemy. If a man is smart and loves what he’s doing he will never stop learning. Talking and listening to others, reading magazines and books, watching videos is only a bonus to the skills you learn on your own through trial and error. It’s good to share your experiences with others in forums like this. Even if the other posters seem to have more experience and can learn nothing from you. Think about all the others who never comment but read and learn from your post. You could be teaching some young kid how to fish and don’t even know it. Once at bass pro in Springfield during the weigh in of a fishing tournament I meet Jimmy Houston. It was a chance meeting in the store. He was with two of his friends, I don’t know who they where. The area at the moment was deserted except for him, his two friends and me. I don’t know why but when I seen who it was I blurted out JIMMY HOUSTON! I was shocked! He smiled and spoke to me then pulled out a pen and reached for the piece of paper in my hand like he was going to give me his autograph. I pulled the my hand back and said I don’t want your autograph, I don’t care who you are, I’m not no groupie! I’d just like to shake your hand and thank you for teaching me how to fish. Then he gave me the Jimmy Houston laugh, stopped and made time to talk to me for a few minutes. I’ll never forget it. Here was a guy who I watched on TV as a kid, watched no telling how many of his videos and never in my wildest dreams ever expected to meet the man even though he played a valuable role in my life. Both he and Bill Dance have contributed a great deal to the hobby I love the most, fishing. Like wise in a forum like this one never knows the impact you might have on someone else’s life. So share on my friend.

[Buckshotdad1960]

OK, I found some general areas that should be good for some nice size crappies. I’m trying to locate a map right now. Is there anyone out there who has ever been to these places? The James River arm, the upper Long Creek arm and the Kings River arm, all around Table Rock some where. I think I know about where the James River arm should be but I have no idea where the others might be. I learned about these places from a magazine called Missouri Game and Fish. I guess they just assume that everyone knows where these places are but I don’t know where they are and I’ll bet most people have no idea either. They should at least tell you what towns their near by. A map would have been nice. I guess where the boat launch and bait stores are would be too much to ask for. Can anyone share any knowledge about these places?

[FishinCricket]

You remind me of good old Scudz Rule, for those of you who know what I'm talking about..........

Heck, he don't remind me of scudz at all... This guys posts are a little wacky, but they are funny in a 'I make sense" kinda way.. Now's Scudz son, the Philosopher, I'd like to see him come back..

When fish become more important than the humans they exist for then gentlemen I suggest we have a problem.

Heya, BuckshotDad.. Seems as though (if I am reading this thread right) you are looking for a place to catch some crappie for a pond stock? I gotta place just outside of Lebanon that has a 3 acre pond that is OVERGROWN with Crappie, little tiny ones! 2-6 inchers on every cast with my fly rod for 5 hours straight (excellent practice).. I warn you though, they are Pirrhana crappie or something, in on corner of the pond I caught about 50 that looked like this:

I am sure I could put you in contact with the old boy who owns it, and I am even more sure he would be happy to let you fish a few hundred out. Solves OTF's issue nicely too..

Look at Cricket, making friends and mending fences... lol

PM me if you wanna know more sir... And thanks for the posts on this thread, you were crackin' me up!

[Buckshotdad1960]

Fishincricket,

LOL Finally someone with a sense of humor! I was beginning to wonder if it was against the law for comedians to be fishermen around here. After I posted that I swear I could hear the sphincters puckering! Oh well, some people take things way too seriously and don’t know how to have fun! And isn’t that why we fish? To have fun! From some of the threads I’ve read here I think there are a few people missing the boat!

Thank you for your invite. That is the exact kind of thing I’m looking for only in your case it too far. I have to keep these fish alive so I’m limited to about 30 minutes travel time from the Nixa/Ozark area. Of course I’ll sand bag your post just in case worst comes to worst and I find myself having to figure out how to set up some sort of air ration system in the spring. I may end up having to travel a far distance to get these crappies. Keep your ear open incase you hear of something closer for me.

Thanks for being a friend!

[FishinCricket]

Airators are pretty cheap at Wally World... For these fish you can leave the pole at home and just being a cast net..

(And your welcome, of course.. Fishin's sposed to be fun!)

[Buckshotdad1960]

What in the heck happened to those crappies in that pond Fishincricket? Is there a nuclear power plant near by? I’ve never seen crappies like that before. I don’t think I should put crappies like that in the pond. They must have a bad gene thing going on. Maybe the pond started off with one male and one female and they have been breeding back on each other for years? At any rate those are definitely hillbilly crappies. I better pass on those!

[Buckshotdad1960]

Sterile crappie much better for ponds

By Hal Schramm April 30, 2009

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Blackstripe, or blacknose, crappie are being used so they are easily recognized.

HAL SCHRAMM

Blackstripe, or blacknose, crappie are being used so they are easily recognized.

Mississippi is home to some of the best crappie fishing in the country. The fertile waters and long growing season are conducive to fast growth. When year-class strength is moderate, the crappie can grow to more than 1 pound in three to four years, and fishing is fantastic.

Unfortunately, moderate year classes are the exception, and crappie numbers and quality fluctuate widely.

The problem with crappie

While a good spawn and high survival that produces a strong year class seems like a good situation, the abundant crappie share a limited food supply, and growth suffers. Anglers catch a lot of crappie, but they are small.

When weak year classes are produced, often as a result of low water conditions in flood-control reservoirs or high flow-through in hydroelectric or navigation impoundments, the few fish have plenty of food, and growth is fast. In a couple years, anglers will be catching some big crappie, but bites will be few.

The fluctuations in crappie abundance become even more acute in impoundments smaller than 500 acres. A 1-pound female crappie can spawn 60,000-100,000 eggs, so the reproductive output of only a couple crappie can overpopulate a small impoundment.

The abundant crappie will quickly outstrip forage production and even compete with bass for fish forage and with bream and catfish for invertebrate forage. For obvious reasons, crappie should not be stocked into small impoundments.

Despite these problems, many anglers want to catch crappie in private ponds and in Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) lakes. Managing for consistently good crappie fishing in small impoundments requires control of crappie reproduction.

MDWFP fishery managers now have a tool that can be used to produce good and stable crappie fishing in small impoundments. The tool is a fish — a triploid hybrid crappie — the Magnolia crappie, and it is being produced at the North Mississippi Fish Hatchery.

Making Magnolia crappie

The Magnolia crappie is a cross between a male blackstripe crappie and a female white crappie. The blackstripe crappie is a color variant of the black crappie that occurs naturally in low numbers in some Mississippi impoundments. The blackstripe crappie — also called a blacknose crappie — is recognized by a narrow, dark stripe from the dorsal fin forward down the top of the head and continues on the underside of the head to the back of the mouth.

The hybrid offspring of the male blackstripe crappie and the female white crappie retains the black stripe. Using the blackstripe crappie as the male parent instead of a normally colored black crappie allows hybrids produced in the hatchery to be easily recognized.

But hybrid crappie can reproduce, so hybrids don’t accomplish the goal of controlled reproduction needed to effectively manage crappie in small impoundments. But the hatchery scientists have one more trick — they make the crappies triploid.

Crappie, as most fish, have two sets of chromosomes. This is the diploid condition, and diploid fish reproduce normally. Triploid crappie have three sets of chromosomes. Cellular processes necessary to produce viable eggs and sperm break down when there are three sets of chromosomes. It is the triploid condition that prevents the triploid hybrid crappie from producing offspring. The fish produce eggs and sperm and mate, but the fertilized eggs do not develop.

The triploid offspring are produced by stripping eggs from normal female white crappie and fertilizing them with sperm stripped from normal male blackstripe crappie. At exactly five minutes after fertilization, the eggs are put into a pressure chamber and exposed to 8,000 psi of pressure for two minutes. This interrupts the normal cellular processes, and results in the egg retaining an extra set of chromosomes. The fertilized egg, and the offspring that develops from it, have three sets of chromosomes, and cannot produce offspring.

Crappie reproduction is controlled only if all the stocked fish are triploid. Unfortunately, the procedure is not yet fool-proof. The percentage of offspring that are triploid has ranged from 60 percent to 100 percent, so work remains to further refine the process. Fish can be tested to see if they are triploid by taking a tiny blood sample from each fish. The process does not injure the fish, but is very labor intensive and limits the number of fish that can be stocked.

As the hatchery staff continues to refine their procedures, Magnolia crappie are being produced and will be stocked into some state fishing lakes. The MDWFP hatchery does not provide fish for private stocking.

Hard work and progressive thinking will produce great crappie fishing without creating populations of overabundant and small crappie of little interest to anglers.

[Buckshotdad1960]

This is what they look like.

http://www.ms-sportsman.com/details.php?id=361

[Buckshotdad1960]

I think you can buy them here?

http://www.jmmaloneandson.com/hybridcrappie.html