to catch either white crappies or black crappies in 
or near a brush pile, provided the population is 
high. In the fall months the angler merely ties or 
anchors his boat at the edge of the brush pile and 
drops his minnow into the brush. In the winter the 
fisherman cuts a small hole in the ice over the 
brush pile and drops his minnow through the hole 
down into the brush. 
Some of the more successful crappie fisher- 
men use a 7%-foot cane pole with guides (brush 
pole), a nylon-leader line, a lead sinker, a bobber, 
and a No. 2 to No. 6 hook baited with a live creek 
minnow about 2% inches in length, fig. 9. The 
minnow is dropped in the water ahead of the sinker 
and bobber. The bobber should hit the water 
lightly. 
Fishing along shore in the buckbrush or 
buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis L.) can be 
done successfully in the spring, summer, and fall 
months. To fish the buckbrush properly requires a 
little practice. The boat should be moved slowly 
and quietly along the outside of the buckbrush. To 
accomplish this slow, quiet movement of the boat, 
either the angler should have a pusher operate 
the boat for him, or he should use a small, light 
paddle at one end of the boat, fig. 9. 
Crappies may be caught in water as shallow 
as 6 inches. In water this shallow the bobber 
should be pulled down the line close enough to 
the hook to keep the minnow off the bottom. In 
water 2 feet in depth the minnow should be fished 
6 inches or more from the bottom. If the water 
is 34% to 4 feet deep, the minnow should be fished 
about 14 inches below the surface. 
When a crappie takes the minnow, abrupt 
jetking of the pole should be avoided; otherwise 
the hook may be pulled out of the fish’s 
weak mouth. 
No correlation was noted between the success 
of crappie fishing and changes in water levels at 
Lake Chautauqua, fig. 10. Fishermen usually 
preferred low, stable water levels in fishing for 
ctappies during the spring and fall seasons. 
The relative abundance of crappies in the 
anglers’ catch at Lake Chautauqua was not con- 
stant from year to year. In 1950, white crappies 
and black crappies together formed 27.4 per cent 
of the anglers’ catch and, in 1951, 63.0 per cent, 
table 2; at one boat yard they had formed 14.4 
per cent of the anglers’ catch in 1941 and only 5.0 
per cent in 1942 (Hansen 1942). 
The difference between the 1950 and the 1951 
catches of crappies was due principally to a 
change in the abundance of catchable-sized white 
ctappies belonging to fhe dominant brood spawned 
in 1948. 
At the beginning of the 1950 season, white 
crappies of this 1948 year-class were for the most 
part too small to interest anglers, fig. 11, and fish 
from older age groups were not abundant enough 
in the lake to make good fishing. As a result, 
white crappie fishing was poor in the spring of 
1950, table 3. 
The white crappies of the 1948 brood attained 
an average total length of 8.5 inches by September 
of 1950 and furnished anglers with excellent fish- 
ing that fall, fig. 12. Crappie fishing continued to 
be good through the winter of 1950-51 and the spring 
of 1951. The average total length of the white 
crappies caught during those periods remained at 
8.5 inches. By the fall of 1951, members of the 
1948 brood averaged 10.0 inches in length. Fish- 
ing continued to be good through the fall of 1951 
because of the large number of the 1948 brood 
still present in the lake. Thus, white crappies 
spawned in 1948 provided the bulk of the crappie 
fishing in 1950 and 1951 and will dominate the 
catch through 1952. By the fall of 1952 these 
white crappies will probably average 11.0 inches 
or more in length. 
The abundance of this 1948 year-class of 
white crappies is decreasing each year. Tagging 
studies indicate that hundreds of thousands of 
these fish vanished from the lake between October, 
1950, and October, 1951. In all probability some 
ofthem emigrated from the lake; however, to date we 
have not received a tag return of a white crappie 
caught outside of the lake. We believe that the 
bulk of these fish died in the lake from natural 
causes and were therefore lost to fishermen. 
Field observations and scale studies indicate 
that the white crappies of Lake Chautauqua are 
telatively short lived. Of the many thousands of 
white crappies we handled in the field in 1950 
and 1951, the largest was slightly more than 14 
inches in length. Its age was determined as 7 
years. Few other white crappies even approached 
this fish in size, and those we aged by the scale 
method were 6 years of age or younger. 
Spawning of white crappies apparently was 
very unsuccessful in 1949 and 1951. It was com- 
paratively successful in 1950, and the brood 
produced should provide some fishing in future 
years, but not so much as that provided by the 
1948 brood. 
White crappie fishing will probably decline 
by the fall of 1952 or by 1953 because of the 
progressive reduction of the 1948 brood through 
15 
