Priest Receives Dose Of Black-Nose Crappie

Percy Priest Reservoir has been a reliable source of crappie in recent years, but true to its nature, the lake is undergoing a downturn in the cycle of this popular game fish that this year prompted the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency to stock 128,000 black-nosed black crappie into the lake.

“The fish we stocked this year will be too small for anglers to take home even if they manage to catch a few of them, but in a few years we hope they show up and help fill the gap of a poor reproduction in Percy Priest Lake,” explained Todd St. John, a reservoir fish biologist for the TWRA.

St. John is not predicting a terrible year for crappie fishing on Priest, but he is sure all crappie anglers won’t have the success found a few years ago when the reproduction cycle peaked and the lake was full of 10-inch plus fish after multiple years of excellent spawning success.

“This will be a year when some of our other mid-state lakes offer a better choice for crappie fishing because we have now had several years of poor reproduction in our crappie population,” said St. John.

Old Hickory Lake, for example, had an outstanding crappie year in 2007 as anglers reported numerous successful outings, and the lake should have at least a good population of 10-inch plus fish this spring.

“We had mixed results on our Old Hickory surveys this past fall,”
said St. John. “We use nets designed primarily to catch small fish and determine from those nets whether a lake had a good reproductive year.

“We found a lot of young crappie on the upper half of Old Hickory, but only fair numbers on the lower half. However, anglers should still catch a lot of crappie from previous year classes this spring.”

While the young crappie studied this year wouldn’t reach the statewide size limit of 10 inches for two to three years, the results of this year’s study will be compared to previous years—and years to come—when biologists discuss cycles and predict angling success for an approaching spring.

Meanwhile, Cheatham Reservoir—easily the least pressured Middle Tennessee impoundment by anglers—is also a good crappie lake that offers an alternative for crappie fishermen.

“It’s a run-of-the-river lake like Old Hickory but without as any deep embayments, coves, or big creeks and that may be why it doesn’t get as much pressure, but it is a very good lake and has a good crappie population,” noted St. John.

The crappie size limit on all three lakes is 10 inches and the creel limit—the number of fish anglers is allowed to keep each day—is 30 on Percy Priest, Old Hickory, Cheatham lakes.