Photo by Eileen Davis

Welcome to April in Tennessee -- where there are so many outdoors options and so little time. Being a total outdoorsman means making timely decisions. There are pre-spawn bass begging for your attention and turkeys doing their mating ritual across the state.

But it’s also one hot month for catching Volunteer crappie, and here are three waters that feature must-fish quality.

Sure, you can find largemouth bass and big catfish at Kentucky Lake, monster smallies and walleyes at Dale Hollow, as well as saugers and largemouths at Douglas Lake, but these three waters share a common bond. All three are excellent crappie destinations that demand your springtime attention, and crappie fishing doesn’t get much better than it does in April on these lakes.

REDUCED LIMITS IN A NUTSHELL
In August 2006, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) proposed to reduce the crappie creel limit from 30 per day to 15 on many of the state’s reservoirs. This proposal was based on data collected by TWRA biologists over the last 25 years and concerns expressed by crappie anglers in recent years.

Since the mid-1990s, TWRA biologists have documented a steady decrease in catch and harvest rates from what were historically some of the best crappie-producing reservoirs in Middle and East Tennessee.

“Fishing pressure is higher and anglers are more efficient due to innovations in technology and communication,” said Mike Jolley, a Region III TWRA biologist. Many anglers realize this and have been requesting more stringent regulations for crappie. Since 2000, TWRA has received numerous requests from anglers to reduce the crappie creel limit.

The agency said the crappie fisheries in Middle and East Tennessee typically exhibit boom-bust cycles because water levels during the spawn fluctuate from year to year. One of the major reasons that TWRA would like to see the creel limit reduced is because biologists fear that the “boom” years may be more infrequent in years to come.

“Most of these reservoirs have less habitat and lower fertility than they have had in the past,” Jolley added. Studies have linked pre-spawn filling of reservoirs and stable water conditions during the spawn with successful crappie spawns. Additionally, much of the preferred crappie spawning habitat will not be available during the spawn because it will be “high and dry.”

These changes have TWRA biologists concerned because they are uncertain of the effects they will have on crappie recruitment. When conditions are not right during the spawn, weak (poor recruitment) or missing (failed recruitment) year-classes can result. In recent years, failed recruitment has been documented on several Middle and East Tennessee reservoirs. Biologists suspect that complete recruitment failure did not occur in the past when population levels were higher. The reduced creel limits will not apply to West Tennessee fisheries like Kentucky Reservoir and Reelfoot Lake. These fisheries normally have better recruitment than East Tennessee reservoirs.

“We index crappie recruitment by counting the number of young-of-year crappie, shorter than 5 inches, that we catch in our trap net surveys each fall,” said George Scholten, TWRA Reservoir and River Fisheries coordinator. “Recruitment in our West Tennessee reservoirs is more consistent and normally higher than recruitment in Middle and East Tennessee reservoirs.”