Wappapello crappie spawn 'unreal,' but vital shad spawn is questionable

WAPPAPELLO, Mo. — “It’s just unreal,” biologist Dave Knuth said as he pulled dozens of small, young-of-the-year crappies from a net on Wappapello Lake the morning of Oct. 24. “We’ve probably recorded at least a thousand of them the last three days.”

At the next net, the story was the same.

Knuth, a biologist with Missouri Department of Conservation Fisheries Management, along with fellow biologist Jason Crites and graduate student Joey Root, were conducting the annual trapnetting survey of crappies on Wappapello Lake, which helps determine the amount and size distribution of fish in the lake.

During the survey, 20 nets are set in strategic locations along the shoreline to catch cruising crappies. The nets, Crites said, typically are set in water from 5.5 to 9 feet deep.

With the nets in the water for three nights, the information gathered gives biologists an idea of what’s happening with the fish.

Biologist Dave Knuth, center, and graduate student Joey Root bring a trap net into their boat while biologist Jason Crites controls the vessel during last week's crappie survey on Wappapello Lake.Paul Davis ~ Daily American Republic

“We can look at growth rates and the size structure and get a good idea of what’s going on,” Knuth said.

The sheer number of young crappies caught this year makes Knuth cautiously optimistic because it sets the lake up for better fishing in the future.

“This is the best recruitment year we’ve had in at least seven or eight years,” he said, “so this is a rebuilding year.”

On the flipside, he remains cautious for a couple of reasons.

The first is the number of black crappies in the lake, which number around half of the overall total. They grow much slower than white crappies, rarely reaching 9 inches long, and their numbers have increased dramatically over the last decade. The younger ones also compete with white crappies for food in the early years of their lives.

Wappapello Lake saw a banner crop of young-of-the-year crappies in 2019, which biologist Dave Knuth said was the best hatch in many years.Paul Davis ~ Daily American Republic

“I was hoping the black crappies wouldn’t do as well, but they did,” he said.

With that in mind, Knuth strongly encourages anglers to keep the small black crappies they catch, noting doing so is the best way to help the lake’s faster-growing white crappies thrive.

His second concern is the 2019 spring shad spawn and whether it produced the number of small baitfish needed to support the stronger crappie population.

After a long period of high water in the early spring, which Knuth credits for the “off the chart” crappie spawn, the lake level dropped more quickly than what is ideal for the later shad spawn, and he’s not finding the number of tiny gizzard shad he’d like to see.

“I had hoped the drawdown would go slower,” he said. “The shad are a little bigger than desirable, especially for those smaller crappies.”

Fisheries Management biologist Dave Knuth, right, and graduate student Joey Root measure crappies captured during last week's annual trapnetting survey on Wappapello Lake.Paul Davis ~ Daily American Republic

Still, his overall consensus is the crappies in the lake are in good shape, and they have begun feeding heavily on shad as the water temperature continues to drop.

Knuth does caution, however, that fishing in the spring won’t be as good as this year.

“That’s because the 2015-16 year class wasn’t good,” he said.

It shouldn’t stay that way for long, however, and if anglers help by taking good numbers of black crappies out of the system and shad production doesn’t dwindle greatly, 2022 should be a banner year as this year’s huge crop of new fish reach 3 years of age.

As a reminder, Knuth said, a new crappie regulation went into effect on Wappapello Lake in March, allowing anglers to keep up to 30 fish per day. No more than 15 can be longer than 9 inches, and smaller crappies can make up an entire daily limit.

“I haven’t had a single complaint about it this year,” Knuth said. “I think people have received the regulation pretty well.”

Knuth said he welcomes input from anglers and can be reached at MDC’s Southeast Regional Office at (573) 290-5730.