Clear Lake is famous worldwide for its outstanding bass fishing. It is rated as the No. 2 bass lake in the nation if not the world. Thirty years ago it was a different story as crappie drew the fishermen to the lake.
A survey conducted by the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DWF) in the 1970s showed that more than 75 percent of fishermen at Clear Lake fished for crappie and less than 10 percent went after bass. By the 1990s, with the bass tournaments gaining in popularity, bass took the lead, drawing more fishermen to the lake than the crappie.
Crappie rarely draw the catch-and-release anglers and most of the fishermen keep every crappie they catch as long as they stay within the legal daily limit. The good news is there have been recent reports of a few fishermen catching decent numbers of crappie. One fisherman who targets only crappie says he has been averaging from 10-15 crappie every time out and some are weighing up to 3 pounds.
Crappie are called a “cycle” fish by biologists, meaning they have wild swings in population. The population builds up to massive numbers in a few years and then crashes. This has happened at Clear Lake a number of times. The lake”s crappie fishery reached its peak in the early 1960s when it wasn”t unusual to catch more than 100 fish per day. However, around 1980 the crappie fishery crashed and they all but disappeared. The county even stocked the lake with Florida-strain crappie in hopes the fishery would make a comeback. There have been a few years when the crappie population has soared but it always crashes.
This past spring a number of fishermen reported seeing large schools of juvenile crappie, meaning there was a good hatch last year. It only takes a few adult crappie to repopulate a lake.
The downfall for crappie is their table quality. Few fish can match a crappie for eating and that”s a reason most of the fishermen catch and keep a daily limit of 25 fish. However, biologists says that catching and keeping a limit of crappie probably has little effect on the population.
Just as largemouth bass aren”t native to Clear Lake or even the West, it”s the same story for the crappie. Black crappie were brought to the state from Meredosia, Illinois, way back in 1908. They were stocked in Clear Lake and other lakes. They flourished at Clear Lake because of the ideal habitat it offered. White crappie were planted into the lake in 1951.
While the black and white crappie are nearly identical, they can be identified by counting the spiny rays on the dorsal fin. A black crappie has seven or eight spines and a white crappie has six spines. Most of the crappie presently in the lake are of the black species although there are also good numbers of white crappie.
Crappie can grow to large sizes. The world record for black crappie is 6 pounds while the biggest white crappie ever caught was 5 pounds, 3 ounces. Clear Lake holds the state record for white crappie (a 4-pound, 8-ounce fish caught in 1971). Two-pounders are common and occasionally a 3- or 4-pounder is caught.
While bass become lethargic during the winter when water temperature drops below 50 degrees, crappie actively feed in the coldest water. In fact, in such northern states as Minnesota and Michigan, crappie are a popular fish for ice fishermen. The anglers cut a hole in the ice and either drop a live minnow or jig down into the icy water. They catch dozens of crappie this way.
Crappie are always found in schools and some of the schools can be huge, holding up to 200 fish. They also tend to be in the deeper water during the winter months. At Clear Lake, most of the crappie will be found in water that”s at least 15 feet deep, which means they are located primarily from the middle to the south end of the lake.
Most fishermen at Clear Lake use the standard red/white crappie jig. Lightweight spinning gear is preferred. The jig can be fished with or without a bobber. When fishing without a bobber, the jig is cast to a dock and allowed to slowly fall. It is then retrieved slowly. Normally all you feel is slight pressure on your rod when a fish grabs the jig.
With bass tournament participation on the decline it could be that crappie will once again become the favorite fish for the recreational angler. The good part is that you don”t need a $70,000 boat to successfully fish for crappie. The old 12-foot aluminum boat works just fine.
