Seasonal abundance, habitat preference, and spawning success of crappie in Norris Reservoir, Tennessee

Trap nets and electrofishing were used to evaluate seasonal abundance of black (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) and white crappie (P. annularis) in fish attractor and non-attractor areas. Catch rates (CPUE) for electrofishing for spring and fall combined were as follows: in the fish attractor areas, 16.0 for young-of-year (YOY), 33.0 for preharvestable, and 9.1 for harvestable sized black crappie; in the non-attractor area, 0.6 for YOY, 13.7 for preharvestable, and 5.2 for harvestable sized crappie. White crappie rates were much different: in the attractor areas, 0.1 for YOY, 2.1 for preharvestable fish, and 3.8 for harvestable white crappie. Only harvestable sized white crappie were collected from non-attractor area CPUE of 0.6. Catch rates with trap nets during fall sampling only were substantially lower than catch rates by electrofishing. It was concluded that: (1) electrofishing was more efficient than trap netting for sampling crappie in Lost Creek, (2) black crappie are much more abundant than white crappie, and (3) fish attractors areas are very beneficial to crappie their entire life.

The spawning period of black crappie in Lost Creek was determined to be from 18 April, when the temperature was 15.7 C, to 12 May 1994, when the temperature was 18.5 C; 55 female black crappie were used in the determination. The white crappie spawning period could not be determined because only 3 were collected. A total of 132 larval crappie were sampled by light traps; their diet consisted mainly of copepods with fewer numbers of cladocerans, i.e., 18.5 copepods to every 1.0 cladoceran eaten.