Sixty Year Diary Clearly Show Crappies Populations Cycle In Size and Abundance

Age 14 fished some of the best crappie lakes of Western Minnesota with my parents, with my drivers driver’s license continued to do so with friends. In those early years winter fishing pressures on crappie was very high hundreds of fish houses every winter. I also fished a couple of private lakes with no pressure. My 60 sixty-year diary showed crappie size and abundance went from small crappie very abundant to scarcer larger crappie during a 7-8 year span. This occurred like clockwork even the private lakes reacted the same fashion with little or no fishing pressure. Anglers on the public lakes would fish a hot lake or two then as the crappie catches got scarce move on. Crappie are a very prolific species of fish for that reason bounce back in time, realizing data showed this on a number of Western Minnesota crappie lakes. Red Lake, many will recall years ago a very abundant crappie population, catchable in size and qty. Those crappies became fewer every year some thought never to come back. Today dating back 3-4 years ago crappie are showing in angler catches today fairly abundant and of good size. I predict like my diary shows will cycle and disappear for time and “cycle” back. So brings me to this question does lowering the limit to 5 crappie really make a difference? Seems to me more about natural crappie lakes and where they are on the cycle.

It seems this is also the case with perch, and imo walleye as well. Made me wonder are there species besides sunfish that end up stunted in size?

Crappies can be stunted. You see it a lot on the chisago area lakes where the crappies are stunted. Some of it was because of slot regs (on Green Lake in particular) but the amount of 7-8” crappies in those systems is alarming. There are some larger but generally not. Anything over goes in a bucket but people continue to fish those lakes hard because the numbers are there.

Gary Korsgaden wrote:

Age 14 fished some of the best crappie lakes of Western Minnesota with my parents, with my drivers driver’s license continued to do so with friends. In those early years winter fishing pressures on <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>crappie was very high hundreds of fish houses every winter. I also fished a couple of private lakes with no pressure. My 60 sixty-year diary showed <em class=”ido-tag-em”>crappie size and abundance went from small crappie very abundant to scarcer larger crappie during a 7-8 year span. This occurred like clockwork even the private lakes reacted the same fashion with little or no fishing pressure. Anglers on the public lakes would fish a hot lake or two then as the crappie catches got scarce move on. Crappie are a very prolific species of fish for that reason bounce back in time, realizing data showed this on a number of Western Minnesota crappie lakes. Red Lake, many will recall years ago a very abundant crappie population, catchable in size and qty. Those crappies became fewer every year some thought never to come back. Today dating back 3-4 years ago crappie are showing in angler catches today fairly abundant and of good size. I predict like my diary shows will cycle and disappear for time and “cycle” back. So brings me to this question does lowering the limit to 5 crappie really make a difference? Seems to me more about natural crappie lakes and where they are on the cycle.

Great post. This reminds me to try a crappie lake that was great 7 years ago and has been dead ever since. Does your diary show patterns in location and depth? Particularly ice fishing during the winter.

Reply from Jimmy Jones on “Double Topic” post that I just deleted.
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Jimmy Jones
Posts: 3012
January 24, 2025 at 9:58 am#2312696

Crappies no doubt go thru natural “hi’s” and “lo’s” and for the most part seem to come back, but there are other factors that can come into play.
Crappies are pretty resilient and can bounce back after adversity hits them. I’ve seen a couple kills on a local lake that took age/size specific crappies. Both times fish in the five to 7″ range were killed off. The kills were only a one summer thing each time and several years apart. The gills would load up with a disgusting looking fungus and smother the fish. Its been several years since I have seen it, and I hope it’s gone for good.

With an absence of a year class that could either feed heavy on bugs or heavy on smaller minnows, both the lesser fish and the larger fish benefited from the lack of food competition from that age class/size, but there was a notable absence of that year class down the road. Still, the other year classes filled that void nicely.

On the other hand, I have seen what was a large-crappie presence in a large retention pond get stripped in a month of a single winter of ice fishing and to this day many years later not have a decent crappie in it.

I think the genetic backbone of any crappie population will stay healthy only as long as those larger fish do not get depleted.

I see a ton of stunted pike up north. Seems like almost every lake up here has an unhealthy number of small pike.

I have seen many lakes with stunted sunfish, bass too.

Cedar Lake in Faribault is notorious for stunted crappies. Been that way for as long as I can remember.

I do agree with the crappie cycle, though. I fish a relatively unpressured lake that seems to go through a similar cycle on a 7-8 year basis.

..

Funny you should post this now…. the winter before I moved to Maui, July 2018… I hammered the crappie on a favorite lake of mine in Central Mn. Since then, talking to people who still fished it, the bite & size hasn’t been as good. I attributed this to my awesomeness in catching crappies… but this year, people are telling me, the bite is back on !!! Literally 7 years later !!! I think your on to something !!!

brandmoney wrote:

I see a ton of stunted pike up north. Seems like almost every lake up here has an unhealthy number of small pike.

There’s a reason the daily bag limit of pike is 10 in most of the state. There are way too many stunted populations of them in a lot of lakes. Unfortunately, it seems most anglers really have no interest in harvesting small pike. Everyone wants walleyes or panfish.

Harvest of big pike has contributed to this problem. In many smaller lakes, the top predators are sizable northern pike (absent of muskies). Big pike eat small pike. Without that balance, there is nothing keeping snot rockets in check. Then you have the DNR trying to stock walleye fry or fingerlings and they all get gobbled right up by the over population of northern pike.

I bass fish a lot and many of the smaller lakes where I target largemouth, this problem is so obvious. Not uncommon to catch 20, maybe 30 of them in just a few hours mixed right in with the bass. This isn’t a new problem either, been going on for at least a decade now. Doesn’t really seem to be getting any better either.

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>brandmoney wrote:</div>
I see a ton of stunted <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>pike up north. Seems like almost every lake up here has an unhealthy number of small pike.

There’s a reason the daily bag limit of <em class=”ido-tag-em”>pike is 10 in most of the state. There are way too many stunted populations of them in a lot of lakes. Unfortunately, it seems most anglers really have no interest in harvesting small pike. Everyone wants walleyes or panfish.

Harvest of big pike has contributed to this problem. In many smaller lakes, the top predators are sizable northern pike (absent of muskies). Big <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>pike eat small pike. Without that balance, there is nothing keeping snot rockets in check. Then you have the DNR trying to stock <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye fry or fingerlings and they all get gobbled right up by the over population of northern pike.

I <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass fish a lot and many of the smaller lakes where I target largemouth, this problem is so obvious. Not uncommon to catch 20, maybe 30 of them in just a few hours mixed right in with the bass. This isn’t a new problem either, been going on for at least a decade now. Doesn’t really seem to be getting any better either.

Gim, after years of you always bringing this up and complaining about the pike, maybe this is the year that you will keep some?

blank wrote:

Gim, after years of you always bringing this up and complaining about the pike, maybe this is the year that you will keep some?

I do keep some. I pickle them. But I’m only one person. Tough for me to make a dent.

I’m not very proficient at removing the y bones though. This is why pickling is the go-to route with them.

nuttin wrong with frying them up and then picking the Y-bones out…..been doing it for years!!!!!!! people are just friggin lazy!!!

nuttin wrong with a smoked pike either!!!! i do my part with them snot rockets!!!

There’s a small lake near where I grew up in WI that has a decent crappie population, but it definitely ebbs and flows for both population and size structure. Water quality can get pretty shaky with the ag runoff but some efforts have been made to clean it up a bit.

It’s probably been 10 years now – but we had a few days where we went back with an old jon boat for the nostalgic effect with a hometown buddy to just reminisce, sip beer, and bobber fish for whatever was around while we caught up with eachother. We had 0 expectations but ended up cathing what had to be ~50 12-13″ fish including my PB at 15.5″ (as someone who rarely ever targets crappies). I haven’t fished it since but he stops there a couple times each Winter. Right after Christmas he sent me a picture and said “They’re Back!” and before I looked I knew exactly what he was talking about. His boy was holding a 14-15″ er and said the action was steady all day.

Long story short, I definitely agree that crappies cycle. I think they’re also one of the easiest fish to locate and catch ice fishing which creates a harvest multiplier for the boom and bust cycles on bodies of water. The systems that are full of stunted fish don’t really experience the booms and busts. If I was solely looking for a trophy crappie, I’d be looking for lakes that have crappies but not at record rates in the netting surveys.

PMB….a majority of those winter crappie trips were in the basin, crappie naturally found in winter. 20′-30′ FOW. Is where these fish continue to be found today so that is where I would start. Crappies move around the basin chasing small minnows. Be sure to be set up by 4PM shortly before sunset and after and into the dark no light time the crappie would come through all night long. One rod set with a jigging style lure the other a “ant hattie” orange or glow with small crappie fathead lightly hooked through the back dorsal so the minnow is free to move a light bobber around the hole. The motion of the bobber became more violent, signaling the crappie is around ready to snap up the minnow. I have found the shallow areas, crappie locales different based on weed types but not far away. Hope this helps.

The diary of my logged information also shows that not all lakes have the ability to produce large sunfish or crappie. In the private lakes with limited harvest of crappie or bluegills, stunted populations of crappie and sunfish existed. Assuming harvest obviously was important. But did see years in the private lake, when the crappie and sunfish were caught, cycled through keepable sized. Crappies and sunfish were rarely thrown back, the larger fish for frying and the smaller ones for pickling. We need to remember harvesting of fish is good for the resource. What we are seeing today, a trend of being critical to harvesting fish which is a scary slope to slide down in my opinion. Fisheries biologists have shared with me that crappie and bluegill are difficult to manage, hard to get assessments on size or qty.

Gary Korsgaden wrote:

Fisheries biologists have shared with me that crappie and bluegill are difficult to manage….

I’ve heard from several people looking to stock new or existing ponds with crappies are often told that crappies and the sunfishes should be avoided because they are a tough fish to control size and numbers-wise.

Jimmy, without harvest they could be. Minnesota doesn’t stock panfish in their lakes.

Spawning conditions and survival rates, along with weather conditions and grocery availability for fish control way more than harvest and regulations could ever control. Doesn’t mean lakes don’t get “fished out” because of pressure. But you can’t regulate spawning conditions or the success or failure of a year class by adjusting limits. If that was the case we should shut lakes down to any harvest or open them up without any regulations. Man does impact fisheries, but spawning conditions and habitat are part of the cycle we tend to ignore in the fishing world. It’s more similar to waterfowl and upland bird numbers being tied to nesting conditions than hunter harvest. How we as fishermen and resource agencies almost gloss over the spawning habitat issues and conditions is mind boggling. And focus everything on regulating limits and angling techniques is only part of the equation. The diary of yours is interesting that even in lakes with little to no pressure there’s still issues that follow the natural cycle. Great post and interesting stuff dealing with 60 years of personal data. Thanks for sharing that!

basseyes wrote:

Spawning conditions and survival rates, along with weather conditions and grocery availability for fish control way more than harvest and regulations could ever control. Doesn’t mean lakes don’t get “fished out” because of pressure. But you can’t regulate spawning conditions or the success or failure of a year class by adjusting limits. If that was the case we should shut lakes down to any harvest or open them up without any regulations. Man does impact fisheries, but spawning conditions and habitat are part of the cycle we tend to ignore in the fishing world. It’s more similar to waterfowl and upland bird numbers being tied to nesting conditions than hunter harvest. How we as fishermen and resource agencies almost gloss over the spawning habitat issues and conditions is mind boggling. And focus everything on regulating limits and angling techniques is only part of the equation. The diary of yours is interesting that even in lakes with little to no pressure there’s still issues that follow the natural cycle. Great post and interesting stuff dealing with 60 years of personal data. Thanks for sharing that!

spot on!!!!!! well said!!!!!

Matt Moen wrote:

Crappies can be stunted. You see it a lot on the chisago area lakes where the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>crappies are stunted. Some of it was because of slot regs (on Green Lake in particular) but the amount of 7-8” <em class=”ido-tag-em”>crappies in those systems is alarming. There are some larger but generally not. Anything over goes in a bucket but people continue to fish those lakes hard because the numbers are there.

Yeah, for a while I thought that 9” minimum was good, but now I realize it was actually super dumb. I always encourage people to keep a bunch of 7.5-9 inchers. Helps the size structure of a population IMO. I’m also not a biologist.

Crappies are very vulnerable when they spawn. They mostly spawn in very shallow water and weather can play a big factor when spawning. It plays a significant factor on the size of the spawn and whether a female will spawn more than once. 7 years is not that surprising as that is there average life expectancy of a crappie. Obviously some live longer and some don’t live as long.
So harvest can be a factor the fact of the matter is crappie die to. So when you have a good spawn one year because the weather was perfect for a good spawn and survival. Those fish may not see another perfect scenario to spawn in numbers again like that in their life time. They reach sexual maturity at age 2. So give or take they have 3-5 years to have a really good spawning season.
Obviously not the only factor.

I fish a large and somewhat complex lake regularly. Seems like the big lakes have less dramatic boom & bust cycles. A small lake may only have one good spawning area, a storm at the wrong time with wind going right at that area could wreck a year class, that would not happen on the lake I fish, too many good spawning spots all over the lake. One thing that helped Red was calm weather right at the spawn time for that great year class-calm spring weather on a huge lake in the spring is a fluke. The other thing that happens on big lakes is fishermen get stuck in habits fish down an area but a new sometimes ignored hot spot emerges-none of this is usually as raging good as a hot bite on a small lake, but if you put in your time you can have good fishing every year on a big lake.

LabDaddy1 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
Crappies can be stunted. You see it a lot on the chisago area lakes where the <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>crappies are stunted. Some of it was because of slot regs (on Green Lake in particular) but the amount of 7-8” <em class=”ido-tag-em”>crappies in those systems is alarming. There are some larger but generally not. Anything over goes in a bucket but people continue to fish those lakes hard because the numbers are there.

Yeah, for a while I thought that 9” minimum was good, but now I realize it was actually super dumb. I always encourage people to keep a bunch of 7.5-9 inchers. Helps the size structure of a population IMO. I’m also not a biologist.

If we’re doing a fish fry I don’t mind keeping the 8-9” crappies. You can get a nice little filet that fries up nicely. You really need to throw back those 11-12”ers on these highly pressured lakes. Unfortunately, that’s not what usually happens.

Tim a very good observation. Yes I have found that crappie in larger well-structured lakes as you mentioned have less dramatic swings. There are some very good comments from everyone on this thread that are appreciated

Boom and bust cycles are interesting. They can be caused by a few different factors for all species, I think, and in the case of walleye, the amount of forage around can have a huge impact on the bite regardless of their actual population level. Low forage and the bite is hot; high forage, they are fat, happy, and hard to catch.

I have fished the same area/areas from shore now for almost 20 years for everything in the lake. Some years, the fishing is spectacular. Some years, not so much. It has been a bit of a puzzle for some years as to why fishing isn’t as good when conditions seem prime, but fishing isn’t as good for this or that species.

If we’re doing a fish fry I don’t mind keeping the 8-9” crappies. You can get a nice little filet that fries up nicely. You really need to throw back those 11-12”ers on these highly pressured lakes. Unfortunately, that’s not what usually happens.
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I agree. There is one smaller metro lake we’ll go out on open water and still somehow kicks out 11-15” crappies year after year. We go out and could fill the livewell with big girls and bull gills from the reeds and newly emergent cabbage but usually end up releasing 85-95% of them because it seems too easy and feels like raping/pillaging. I don’t know how these lakes don’t get fished out, honestly.

LabDaddy1 wrote:

If we’re doing a fish fry I don’t mind keeping the 8-9” crappies. You can get a nice little filet that fries up nicely. You really need to throw back those 11-12”ers on these highly pressured lakes. Unfortunately, that’s not what usually happens.

I agree. There is one smaller metro lake we’ll go out on open water and still somehow kicks out 11-15” crappies year after year. We go out and could fill the livewell with big girls and bull gills from the reeds and newly emergent cabbage but usually end up releasing 85-95% of them because it seems too easy and feels like raping/pillaging. I don’t know how these lakes don’t get fished out, honestly.
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Good observation…seems to be a residual population left doesn’t it.