Timothy N. Churchill Tennessee Wildlife Resources
Agency P.O. Box 40747 Nashville, Tennessee 37204 Voice 615-781-6575
Anders I. Myhr III and Peter T. Copeland Tennessee Wildlife Resources
Agency 218 Genesis Road Crossville, Tennessee 38555 Voice 931-484-9571 FAX 931-456-1025
Daniel A. Isermann Tennessee Cooperative Fishery Research Unit
Tennessee Technological University Box 5114 Cookeville, Tennessee 38505 Voice 931-372-3094
FAX 931-372-6257
Recent angler surveys conducted by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources
Agency (TWRA) have indicated that crappie are the second most popular sportfish in
Tennessee reservoirs. However, due to increases in statewide fishing effort and changes in
environmental conditions, several of the state’s historic crappie fisheries have
declined from historic levels. An effort was begun in the early 1980's to identify a
strain of crappie that could be easily cultured in the state hatchery system and
demonstrated high survival during transport and after stocking. The blacknose race of
black crappie was selected since it possessed a natural mark that could be readily
identified for recaptured fish when an impoundment was initially stocked. Initial
investigations suggested that survival of stocked crappie was low on mainstream
impoundments such as Watts Bar Reservoir.
However, TWRA hatchery managers were impressed at the high numbers
produced by their blacknose crappie broodstocks and survival in ponds and during transport
appeared higher than previous efforts with native black and white crappie. A second
blacknose crappie stocking effort in Center Hill Reservoir succeeded in restoring its
collapsing crappie fishery. Later attempts to stock crappie in other mainstem and
tributary impoundments have also proven successful. At present, the TWRA produces and
stocks more than 2 million blacknose crappie annually and demand by the biologists and the
public continues to increase. Research currently underway seeks to identify those systems
which will be good candidates for future stockings and quantify the impact of supplemental
stockings in reservoirs and small impoundments.