Photo by Tom Berg

My phone rang. "What ya doing?" came the usual greeting from my fishing partner Dave.

"I'm sitting here in my office contemplating my navel": my usual response to Dave's calls.

"Let's check out crappie in my large lake. Ice's out. Morels are beginning to pop. And I'm hungry for a mess of crappie and mushrooms."

Now, Momma didn't raise no dummies. I quickly agreed to meet Dave for a day's fishing crappie followed by some mushroom hunting. Heck, it was spring -- and that's what crappie anglers do.

The crappie is the bread-and-butter fish for most Missouri anglers. Anglers catch and eat more crappie than any other fish species from Missouri's lakes, ponds, and rivers.

Dave has five ponds and one watershed lake, and has access to several other watershed lakes in the region. All support great crappie populations along with bass, bluegills, and other native fish species.

We met the next day and spent the day crappie fishing. I'd like to report catching bunches of crappie and finding sacks of morel mushrooms. It didn't happen. Fishing was slow but steady. Crappie ranged in size from 7 1/2 inches to over 15. We released all large crappie, swollen with eggs or sperm, to finish spawning, keeping only small individuals for the frying pan. In addition to crappie, we caught and kept a mess of largemouth bass and large bluegills over 8 inches.

Unfortunately, mushrooms were still elusive. It was just a little early. We found a few little brown morels, but not the mess we'd hoped for.

This all happened last spring, but prospects for trips like that are just as good this year. Join me now as we review what 2007's crappie anglers should be on the lookout for, and distinguish between crappie fishing sites that should be hot and those at which it's probably not. To learn what to expect, I talked with Missouri Department of Conservation fisheries managers from the different state regions, managers responsible for Missouri's best crappie lakes.

NORTHEAST MISSOURI
Northeast Missouri is, in some ways, a sleeper providing some great crappie fishing; however, in other ways crappie fishing can be mediocre at best. MDC fisheries management biologist Mike Anderson reported that Forrest Lake in Thousand Hills State Park, just northwest of Kirksville, supports a good population of intermediate-size 8- to 10-inch crappie with a few larger fish for anglers. Anglers will catch good numbers in 2007, but they run small.

Similarly, Thomas Hill Lake between Moberly and Macon also has lots of intermediate-size crappie, but fewer large individuals. The 2005 year-class should produce good fishing in 2007 as fish grow to 9 inches -- the legal length limit. Historically, this lake produces good to outstanding crappie fishing each year with biologists rating the winter fishing in the hot water arm as outstanding.

In addition, Mike Covin, a research scientist for MDC who's researching crappie management at several of Missouri's large lakes, reported that his sampling in July 2006 showed good numbers of 9-inch-and-larger crappie and good numbers of 11- to 12-inch fish, adding that some of the 12-inch crappie weighed an honest 16 ounces.