Anglers travel from far and wide to the Big 4 in Mississippi to catch tables covered with 1.5-to-2-pound crappie. This catch is from Sardis Lake. Pictured left-to-right: Charlie Davis, Ed McCoy from Chattanooga, Tenn. and Guide Andy Houston with Barton Outfitters. (Photo: Richard Simms, CrappieNOW Editor)
Welcome to the Magnolia State Paradise
by Brent Frazee
Looking for a place where you stand a good chance of boating a 2-pound fish – or even a 3-pound fish? Head to Mississippi.
As one of the best-known guides in Mississippi, Brad Chappell perhaps understands that better than most. Nowadays Chappell guides primarily on Ross Barnett Reservoir in Ridgeland, Miss. Just days before this writing, he took a group out on a hot, mid-summer day – tough “Dogs Days” conditions in most places. But he gave his clients a taste of what Mississippi is known for.
“We caught crappie from 2 inches – this year’s hatch – to 2 pounds,” Chappell said. “We caught a lot of different year-classes, and about eight of those fish were in the 2-pound range.”
Fisheries biologists with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP) aren’t surprised by such reports.
From the famous Big Four reservoirs along Interstate 55 – Arkabutla, Enid, Grenada and Sardis – to the oxbow lakes off the Mississippi River to Ross Barnett, crappie flourish in the Magnolia State.
Which begs the question: Why?
“There is a sweet spot here in the mid-south,” said Keith Meals, a longtime fisheries biologist who manages the Big Four. “In Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and parts of Texas and Oklahoma, we have pretty darned good growth rates on crappie.
“Here in Mississippi, it’s not unusual to see 3-pound crappie.”
“A lot goes into that,” said Jerry Brown, Director of Fisheries for the MDWFP. “We have a longer growing season, an abundance of baitfish, good habitat, and good recruitment (spawning success). For as long as anyone can remember, Mississippi has been a national destination for crappie anglers.”
Here’s where things get a bit complicated.
The Big Four are shallow, flood-control reservoirs where water levels can vary greatly from year-to-year. In high-water years, crappie can pull off big spawns. Adult fish and their young can pioneer back into newly flooded brush and grass where they are protected from fishing pressure.
The aftermath of those high-water years can be impressive, Meals said.
He points to a Crappie Masters tournament on Grenada in 2023. At the time, there was a 7-fish tournament limit for teams, and the winners weighed in a two-day total of 14 fish weighing 44.71 pounds—an astonishing average of 3.19 pounds per fish.
Four fish in the 4-pound range were caught, including the big-fish winner, which weighed 4.26 pounds.
“That tournament was after several years of high water where those fish were protected from heavy fishing pressure,” Meals said. “When the water levels return to normal and they don’t have any place to hide, the crappie are exposed and vulnerable to fishing pressure.”
Tournaments, such as that one, have only added to the lore and appeal of the Mississippi reservoirs. Non-residents flood into Mississippi every year, especially in the late-winter and spring months, and catch the quantity and quality of fish Mississippi is known for.
But biologists worry that the heavy fishing pressure is having an effect on crappie populations.
They started managing for the popular fish years ago, conducting studies and adjusting limits accordingly. As CrappieNOW reported two months ago, after a three-year study biologists found that forward-facing sonar (FFS) and other factors were having an effect on the number of older, bigger fish being found in surveys. As a result, they reduced creel limits on Arkabutla, Enid, Grenada and Sardis.
The daily limit on those lakes is now 10 crappie per angler and 25 per boat with three or more anglers. The minimum size limit remains at anything over 12 inches.
“In our study, we found that the number of anglers using live sonar went from 20 percent in 2021 to 70 percent in 2023,” Meals said. “There was just an explosion in what I consider pretty expensive technology.
“When (Garmin) Livescope first came out, I said, ‘We don’t need to worry about this. There aren’t a lot of people who will be afford to buy something like this,’ said Meals. “But I was wrong.”
With Arkabutla closed for repairs to the dam, that will shift more fishing pressure to the other three reservoirs and elsewhere, and that also played a part in the decision.
That new regulation didn’t affect other Mississippi waters, including Ross Barnett, which has become a great crappie lake in its own right. There, as in most other Mississippi lakes, the daily creel limit is 30 crappie per person with no size limit. The 33,000-acre reservoir isn’t a flood-control reservoir, so it doesn’t have the dramatic changes in water level like the Big Four.
“That plays big in creating a stable crappie population. Though Barnett doesn’t have the number of big fish that Grenada, Sardis or Enid, fish over 2 pounds are fairly common for experienced anglers,” said Buford Lessley, who manages the lake for the MDWFP.
“It’s a very stable fishery,” Lessley said of Barnett, which is a water-supply lake. “We have consistent water levels, and that plays a part when the fish are spawning. “We have strong numbers of fish from a half to 1 ½ pounds, and some bigger ones, too.”
“Barnett is a textbook lake for crappie fishermen,” Chappell said during a CrappieNOW media camp this spring. “If you know anything about crappie behavior, you can find them. They’re right where they’re supposed to be. “
And Chappell said those fish are receptive to a lot of different patterns. He does everything from using FFS, to pitching jigs to docks to fishing ledges and drop-offs to put his clients on fish.
“I bounce around a lot and still catch fish,” he said. “You can catch crappie from one end of Barnett to the other.”
Brent Frazee was the outdoors editor of The Kansas City Star for 36 years before retiring in 2016. He continues to freelance for magazines, newspapers, websites and tourism markets. He lives in a suburb of Kansas City with his wife Jana and his two yellow labs, Millie and Maggie.
