Did you know that the OCAC is holding monthly meeting for its members at Bass Pro in Broken Arrow. The meetings are on the 2nd Monday of every month at 7pm. Our purpose with these is to provide an opportunity for learning about crappie fishing, there are tips from pro anglers, biologists, experts in many different techniques and much more. We would love to have you come out and bring a friend, anyone interested in the club should come and check it out and hopefully join up.
July’s meeting featured Josh Johnston . Josh is the Northeast Region Fisheries Supervisor for the Oklahoma Department of wildlife. He has a BS in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology and a MS in Natural Resources Ecology and Management.
We will covered the biology and life history of crappie, and explain management techniques for the species in differing situations. He used examples and some sampling data from local water bodies as case studies.
He touched on how we as anglers can improve the crappie population, in particular the tournament quality fish in our lakes. As I visited with Josh I was able to understand more about how we as anglers can manage this resource, his simple statement was that most lakes require that we harvest the 8-12″ fish to maintain healthy populations. Some lakes are different but his statement was that crappie are prolific reproducers, the females reach sexual maturity at 2 years and will produce 60,000 eggs each year. In comparison a black bass produces 5-8000 eggs per year. Because of this many of the techniques used in managing bass simply do not work.
We posted a Facebook live video on our members only page. If you’re not a member you can join up at OkCrappie.com . If you are already a member be sure to request membership OK Crappie – Members Only
The next meeting is on Monday August 12th in the Conservation room of the Bass Pro Shop in Broken Arrow. The meeting will start at 7 and will last until all your questions are answered.