![]() ![]() Anglers will likely see lots of small crappie on stringers in 2019, but this year should begin several years of outstanding crappie fishing in many Arkansas waters, not only for numbers of fish, but for trophy-class slabs as well. The young shad were easy pickings for hungry crappie, which gorged on the bounty and thus headed into autumn and winter in excellent physical condition.Īs a result of all this, given proper conditions, we also can expect to see a superb crappie spawn in 2019, as big healthy slabs lay better-than-average clutches of eggs that will hatch and generate yet another excellent year-class of fish. Shad, an important food for adult crappie, feed heavily on plankton, a fact that led to a superb shad spawn in many waters last year as well. High water also released tons of nutrients, which led to massive plankton blooms in many waters. In many areas, the 2018 spawn was the best in years, producing a new year-class of fish that will continue growing and providing great angling opportunities for years. While high water created unfavorable conditions for crappie fishing throughout much of spring 2018, that same high water inundated thousands of square miles of shallow spawning habitat for crappie and provided excellent nursery habitat for crappie fry. This was a good-news, bad-news situation for crappie-fishing enthusiasts. February precipitation in Little Rock, for example, was 10 inches above the 30-year average, making it the wettest February on record. Heavy rains kept Natural State lakes and rivers unusually high from early February through April. ![]() The year 2018 was an up-and-down one for Arkansas crappie anglers. ![]()
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