# Lake Livingston Crappie



## Lone Eagle (Aug 20, 2009)

Shadslinger, Beautiful catch of Crappie. We also limited out early yesterday and saw five other boats that had their limits also.

A man ask yesterday, "Why are we catching so many nice Crappie this year"? Not being a fish biologist, I can not prove my theory is correct but I think it is due to a couple of factors. 

The lake was drawn down because of damage to our dam during Hurricane Rita. This allowed a lot of vegetation to grow, giving fingerlings more places to hide. Have also noticed that in the past couple years, folks are abiding by the 10" size limit. The smaller fish are being released instead of taken home. 

These two things have helped out Crappie to survive better. May be out in left field but it does make sense to me.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

I think you are on the money Lone Eagle, I was thinking this morning about how all species have been on a great bite this year, but didn't think of why.
It started in May with a fantastic white bass bite, then the stripers did better than I can remember, of course the catfish have been on a good bite all year, and now the crappie. makes good sense to me.
BTW, after I read this post I had to go see if i could catch them, did alright for someone who usually does not fish for them too, lol!


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## Miles2Fish (Dec 2, 2008)

I have noticed we are having a hell of year on the crappie at Lake Conroe but our white bass have seemed non existant this year? Weird huh?


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Lone Eagle said:


> A man ask yesterday, "Why are we catching so many nice Crappie this year"?


Your theory makes sense... also in play here is the same characteristic in Crappie that make them an undesirable fish to stock in ponds under 10 acres.

That characteristic is an unpredictable, highly variant spawn from year to year. One year they may produce nothing and another year they may have thousands of fry from each female. That unpredictability makes them almost impossible to manage in a pond...can't hire and fire predator bass depending on an unknown spawn.

Biologists have studied them in ponds and haven't been able, to my knowledge, to determine the dominant factors that influence spawning numbers.

So, one thing we can conclude for almost certainty is that the Crappie spawn in 2008 was one of those big number spawns which results in the nice fish we are seeing now. I think I will make sure of that next time by checking the age of the crappie I catch. You can pretty accurately determine age by counting rings in the otolith. You absolutely can not determine a crappie's age by its size.

Another factor that may be in play is the LMB population on Livingston, which has been somewhat down the last decade but now seems to be on the increase again....catch and release and TPW stocking. More bass means less crappie numbers, but larger ones among the survivors.

Sorry to ramble, but my prediction is that we will see another very good year next year for crappie, but after that its anybody's guess.


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## randyrandy (Jan 27, 2009)

Miles2Fish said:


> I have noticed we are having a hell of year on the crappie at Lake Conroe but our white bass have seemed non existant this year? Weird huh?


Any theories out there as to why the white bass have seemed nonexistant, along with the hybrids, on Conroe? And, even I have caught crappie this year.:spineyes:


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Good read MDLRK, very interesting. I once heard an explanation about the crappie population variations that stated that about every 5 years there is a generation of crappie that are mainly cannibalistic and they eat the crappie fry until they die off, then for 4 years they have good spawning numbers until the next generation of crappie eaters.
Of course this comes from back in the day when there was a lot of misinformation about fisheries. Ever hear of anything like that?


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## Mattsfishin (Aug 23, 2009)

Randyrandy, I have noticed more whites in Conroe after the hydrilla was gone. In years past I noticed after the hydrilla was gone we would catch a lot of whites and once the hydrilla came back we have not caught as many whites as before. As the hydrilla was taking over the lake we were not catching as many whites and they were not as big as before. I have noticed that when the lake is clean of vegatation that the whites seem to do better. Now with the hydrilla gone again we will see what happens. Hopefully we will have a wet winter and the whites will have a good spawn. Maybe there was too much cover (hydrilla) for the shad to hide in. I have managed to catch limits of whites in the past few years on the north end but I have had to fish a lot harder to limit out. Before the hydrilla came back it didn't take long to limit out everyday. Now for the hybrids, I think they need to restock them and they also like the lake when it is clean. For several years I would use a sassyshad but the past couple of years I have had good luck on a small crankbait like a rattle trap. Just my 2 cents on this.

Matt


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

shadslinger said:


> Good read MDLRK, very interesting. I once heard an explanation about the crappie population variations that stated that about every 5 years there is a generation of crappie that are mainly cannibalistic and they eat the crappie fry until they die off, then for 4 years they have good spawning numbers until the next generation of crappie eaters.
> Of course this comes from back in the day when there was a lot of misinformation about fisheries. Ever hear of anything like that?


I suspect that explaination was formulated in response to observed wild variations in the Crappie population. Biologists have since learned about the variable spawn. They studied the crappie underwater and actually observed spawning over a period of years.

They sure are nice to have....kind of fill in the time slot between summer/fall stripers/whites and winter/spring stripers/whites.


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

"


Meadowlark said:


> I suspect that explaination was formulated in response to observed wild variations in the Crappie population. "
> 
> That sounds about right, many of the things that were believed to be true back in the day were based on,....nothing.
> Lone Eagle's observation about compliance with the 10" min has to be a factor with this increased popualtion as well. I have seen many fisheries saved by tighter regs from TPWD, red fish, LMB to name a few. I hope the tighter flounder regs can save them.


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## RED SNAP (Jul 22, 2009)

[QUOTE=shadslinger... I hope the tighter flounder regs can save them.

The rod and reel anglers do not make a dent in the flounder population compared to the number of juvinile flounder caught and killed in shrimping nets...
Close shrimping for a year or so and the flounder population would explode!
just my 2cents.


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## Sunbeam (Feb 24, 2009)

I fished Beacon Bay docks daily during the early spring from 2000 til Ria caused the draw down We caught HUGE crappie. Never got more than 6 to 10 a day. The spring that the lake was low there were near zero crappie. The first spring after the refill we started catching a few crappie but very disapointing numbers and size. 
But that fall i started catching 2 to 3 inch crappie in my perch traps. Never had the happen before.
This early spring the 10 to 12 inch fish came in in good numbers but the unusual thing was they stayed. Some of the retired resisdents in the area that can fish every day have been catching them since last March. No big strings but 6 to a dozen early and late. Now the west wind has trashed the dock area with hyacinth and muddy water they have stopped biting. I can say that my limited experience with the crappie are from dock fishing. But that experience has shown a steady increase in fish in both numbers and now size since the second spring after Rita.
As a change of subject MDL way do the channel cat do so poorly in this lake. Never catch a large one. The ones you do catch look like concentration camp escapees. Long skinny and smelly.


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## Meadowlark (Jul 19, 2008)

Sunbeam said:


> I....As a change of subject MDL way do the channel cat do so poorly in this lake. Never catch a large one. The ones you do catch look like concentration camp escapees. Long skinny and smelly.


Its an interesting question and I've wondered about it also. Its interesting to contrast Livingston to Fairfield where channel cats, some very large ones, are the most common catfish. Jackie tells me the channels there are some of the best anywhere.

I've got a couple of factors that might partially explain the situation on Livingston:

1) Channels, especially under about 18 inches, prefer aquatic insects. Livingston just doesn't have a lot of that for whatever reason...compared to say Fairfield, for example, whose waters are simply teeming with aquatic insects. Might explain the "concentration camp" appearance of the small channels we often see on Livingston

2) Second...and this is related to 1) above, those yound scraggly channels are very vulnerable to predation by the big Blues. Blues outcompete channels, in fact outcompete LMB and just about any other freshwater fish except flatheads. Livingston, as we know, has tons of Blues, in all sizes. Fairfield, by comparison doesn't have any Blues, to my knowledge, or not in any significant numbers. So, put large numbers of Blues in all sizes up against those scraggly channels and the channels don't have a chance...few make to above 18 inches where the diet then begins to change to include small fish. They just can't compete

That would be my guess.

p.s. ever wonder why Livingston doesn't produce big bluegill? I think the same factors apply. If you want to see huge bluegill, outside of my ponds:biggrin:, go to Fairfield...the bluegils there are arguably the largest in any public waters in Texas....again, aquatic insects, no big Blues.


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## randyrandy (Jan 27, 2009)

Good observations Meadowlark. Always a pleasure to read your thoughts.

Matts, your thoughts about the hydrilla and the white/hybrid populations is certainly making my brain work overtime, lol.


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## Lone Eagle (Aug 20, 2009)

Why did you post this in a freshwater forum? We do not put our freshwater information in your saltwater forums!!!


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## gcourville (Nov 29, 2009)

I caught easly caught a limit of crappie on Friday of last week. Caught them in one small spot in a creek. Haven't done this in a long time. They would hit anything I put in front of them.


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