Small Crappie

[Hunter91]

We saw a kind of strange thing today while fishing around Beaver creek. We were in the back of a small cut and there was some scum/trash on the water. As we got close to it, we noticed there were several(maybe 7-10) apparently dead crappie about 4-5 inches long laying on top of this scum/trash. When we got close enough to one to poke it with a rod tip, it took off. Each one we touched took off and did not return. Has anyone run into something like that before? I just thought it was kind of strange.

[Phil Lilley]

suicide pact... waiting on a heron.

Sorry- I don't know.

How was fishing in Beaver today? Bet it was crowded, at least upstream. Beautiful day- not as much wind.

[Trav]

I have seen this before. In Lower Taney during the floods. I assumed it was sewage shock. In Taney it was not crappie but bass coming out of bull creek. Lathargic and half dead but still aware of risk. I don't think any of them survived. It is the toxic side of Missouri allowing septic tanks to go unmonitored in my opinion. There should be regulations.

I also noticed after the floods the foam under my dock turned jet black. So did every hull of every boat in the area. It is scary people still eat the fish.

[Sam]

It may not be pollution or anything too bad. I was up Beaver Creek the other day, and with the rising water there were so many leaves and sticks floating you could hardly fish in places. Some of that junk is bound to be from walnut trees.

When I was a kid, my grandpa showed me how to put green walnuts in a gunny sack, pound them up, weigh the sack down with a couple of rocks, and sink it in the current flowing into a pool in a creek. Pretty soon, the fish in that pool come floating up, stunned. That'd be an illegal fishing method and I never saw it work except on little fish, but I guess that's the way the Indians did it.

I don't remember the name of the chemical in walnut, but it's in the leaves, husks and all parts of the tree. I think fish recover if they can get away from it, and the small stunned crappie you saw may have just been in a spot with some walnut trash floating in it. You probably saved them from a hungry heron by chasing them out of there.

[Crappie Fisherman]

We saw a kind of strange thing today while fishing around Beaver creek. We were in the back of a small cut and there was some scum/trash on the water. As we got close to it, we noticed there were several(maybe 7-10) apparently dead crappie about 4-5 inches long laying on top of this scum/trash. When we got close enough to one to poke it with a rod tip, it took off. Each one we touched took off and did not return. Has anyone run into something like that before? I just thought it was kind of strange.

That happened last year in Beaver too. Likely due to a hard winter. Fish that small have a hard time with bad winters. I also wonder if thw white bass aren't chasing and killing a few. You know how agressive those whites can be.