Some northern lakes or farm ponds a 3-year-old crappie may be only 9-inches long. But this white crappie author Steve McCadams caught in Tennessee’s Kentucky Lake is likely 4 or 5 years old.
How Fast Do Crappie Grow?
by Steve McCadams
Answers to many questions on fish management can often be found around the nearest boat dock or the local bait and tackle shop. Lots of experts are known to frequent those places, plus it is a great place to hear a lot of great fishing stories. Entertaining and educational!
When talking crappie, sooner or later, comes the great debate about how fast crappie grow. It is a good question. Unfortunately, there is not an answer that applies to every lake.
Here on my home waters of Kentucky Lake, decades of data from Tennessee and Kentucky indicate that it takes a white crappie about three years to achieve the legal 10-inch length limit, and the time when they reach their peak for productive spawning.
In the grand scheme of things, compared to states north of Tennessee or Kentucky, that’s pretty good.
There is often some fluctuation due to a variety of factors including lake levels during peak spawning time, drastic weather changes or fishing pressure. But three years is a good average for a crappie to reach their most productive stage of life in regarding to successful spawning.
Many anglers familiar with lakes in Northern Mississippi – Grenada, Sardis, Enid, Ross Barnett – where minimum size limits are 12-inches, wonder if other states could grow bigger crappie by increasing size limits. Surveys conducted by CrappieNOW Magazine share interesting data on angler opinions.
What anglers who support larger size limits may not understand is that a 12-inch crappie in Northern Mississippi is the SAME AGE as a 10-inch crappie in Tennessee. The productivity of those Northen Mississippi lakes is simply off the charts and their crappie simply grow bigger – but not because they’re older. It’s just because they have more productive habitat.
So, it is fair to say that not all 3-year-old crappie are equal in length or weight.
Go in the opposite direction, north of the Mason-Dixon Line, and the scenario reverses itself. In those states it takes three years for a crappie to grow to 9-inches in length.
One major factor influencing growth rates is the forage base, namely shad. Crappie feed on other species as well, including freshwater drum, silverside minnows, etc…but a hefty forage base of shad it what really influences the physiology.
That is why crappie in farm ponds or small lakes often suffer poor growth rates. Overpopulation in a small lake, results in excessive competition for a limit food source. The result is small, thin, stunted crappie.
Perhaps in an ideal scenario stocking a small lake or pond with an abundance of the right size minnows could greatly assist the growth rate but not many folks can afford that management effort and expense.
Crappie are known to be cyclic in successful spawning, what biologists call “year class strength.” Meaning almost every lake may experience peaks and valleys in crappie fishing over time. But Mother Nature has a way of balancing things out over the long run.
Small young of the year crappie entering the population need small size forage. That’s why having good shad spawns is vital to good growth rates. Different size baitfish fill the needs of different size fish.
Notice earlier I mentioned white crappie. Black crappie are known to possess a shorter length and are referred to by many old timers as “snub nose”. They take on the profile of a football. Short and chunky with the reputation of an aggressive attitude.
Sometimes a hefty black crappie is wide and won’t fit in the measuring devices anglers use to gauge length. It can be sort of tough to toss one back on a slow day. He’s big but not long!
Meanwhile, the carrying capacity of your favorite lake may change over a period of time. It could be habitat loss around shallow shoreline cover that provides both spawning territory and refuge to the fry once they hatch.
Having a place of refuge to hide from predators might mean better survival rates for the tiny fry once they hatch. Give them a little time and they will become the hunter instead of the hunted.
That’s why once they grow into the 5-to-7-inch range, they need a lot of forage fitting their limitations and needs. Schools of small forage when they’re young and short; somewhat larger as they get three years old or older.
Length and creel limits influence how many crappie reach those older, more productive year classes – which remember, vary state-to-state.
I’ve been a fan of lower daily creel limits and reasonable length limits for a long time. When I started crappie fishing more than 60-years ago, we didn’t need creel or length limits because we didn’t have nearly as much angling pressure. And anglers in the old days didn’t fish much in the winter months, they didn’t have fancy technology like we do today. The average crappie angler now is much better at finding and catching crappie today than his grandfather was.
So many factors influence growth rates nowadays. Some lakes just have all the ingredients to produce a hefty population that has above-average growth rates. Others the reverse.
That is why constant monitoring of the fishery – from checking growth rates and sampling year classes – keeps biologists informed if red flags spring up. So, if your biologists suggest changes statewide, or just on your local lake, don’t be too quick to get mad. Ask to see the data.
Steve McCadams is a professional guide and outdoor writer from Paris, Tenn. near Kentucky Lake. A member of The National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame and Legends of the Outdoors he’s been under the spell of the great outdoors for more than 60 years.
