Photo by Ron Sinfelt

Reeling slowly and steadily to swim a lip-hooked minnow over the top of a brushpile, an angler anticipates a telltale tap on the line. The strike won't be much, but he knows well what to expect, so he'll be ready to set the hook with a quick snap of the rod tip. He's already pulled half a dozen keeper crappie from the same pile of brush. He'll work it until the fish stop biting and then look for fresh cover in the same basic depth range.

Crappie are among the most cooperative of Tennessee's major game fish species, especially during the spring, when they move shallow to spawn. Angling approaches are generally elementary, and spots that are likely to hold spring crappie often are obvious. Adding value for fishermen, crappie tend to congregate, so where an angler finds one, others typically are nearby. Fishermen commonly enjoy fast action once they find the right type of cover and depth for the day.

Crappie populations are somewhat cyclical, meaning numbers and average sizes within individual reservoirs go up and down based on past years' spawning and recruitment success. However, similar trends often occur on several lakes because conditions that lend themselves well to a good spawn on one lake often occur on others in the state or at least the same section of the state at the same time. Ups and downs generally are not as severe as they once were on many Tennessee lakes, partly because of a statewide 10-inch minimum size that keeps anglers from "catching out" poor year-classes while the fish are still young.

Tennessee anglers enjoy the benefits of proactive crappie management, both through habitat-improvement work and through stocking of crappie. Biologists in most states consider crappie populations to be self-regulating, so stocking young-of-the-year fish to supplement natural reproduction is uncommon throughout most of the country.

The end result of abundant natural habitat and good management is a tremendous amount of opportunity for crappie fishermen throughout Tennessee. We'll look at some of the waters that offer some of the very best prospects for the season ahead.

EAST TENNESSEE
Douglas Lake
Anglers should enjoy the full fruits of 2003's outstanding year-class of crappie on Douglas Lake this spring. Fish from the best spawning recruitment year in 15 years will be 3 years old (the crappie will be more than 10 inches long) this spring, providing anglers an excellent opportunity to catch good numbers of quality crappie.

Trap-netting results from 2004 showed inconclusive results. Water levels were exceptionally high during the netting season, which likely affected the netting catch. The overall catch still was good, but the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) biologists did not find high numbers of first-year fish.

Fertile for a tributary reservoir, Douglas traditionally has been one of the best crappie lakes in the eastern part of the state. The crappie population had dipped severely during the '90s, but fishing has been substantially better during the past few springs. Last year, crappie were abundant because of the 2003 spawn, but most fish were shorter than the 10-inch minimum size.

A TWRA plan to bring back Douglas crappie fishing to what it once was includes encouragement of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to bring the lake to full pool by April 1 and keep it as stable as possible, supplemental stockings of white crappie, improvement of crappie habitat and improvement of a pond on Henderson Island for raising crappie to release into the lake.

Douglas' best spring crappie waters definitely are up its major creeks, where flats border deeper channels. "The Douglas Report," put together by TWRA fisheries biologists, suggests Flat, Muddy and McGuire creeks as prime areas for spring fishing.