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WHEN CRAPPIE IS REALLY GOODS a fish story by Lake Steward, D. A. (Sandy) Beaton In early April, as | was driving across the causeway on Highway 7A, | saw two young men fishing. It was a beautiful morning and | must admit that their angling made me somewhat jealous. Nonetheless, regulations are regulations, so | stopped to tell them that Lake Scugog is closed to all fishing until the fourth Saturday in April and they would be facing hefty penalties if spotted by a conservation officer. “We are just fishing for crappie!” one of them an- swered back. “I’m sorry, but it is closed for alll fishing.” Like many, they believed there was an open season on this fish. They packed up and headed off. The season for all summer fishing is the 4th Saturday in April to November 15. Fishing licences are required. A GREAT START This conversation, however, provided an excellent en- try point to an article | had promised the Stewards about this newest sport fish to Lake Scugog. The first Pomoxis nigromaculatus or Black Crappie, as it is commonly known, was caught in Scu- gog in 1997. They had been making — their way up the Trent-Severn sys- y tem for some years before finally ar- riving at the headwaters in Scugog. Native to other lakes in Ontario, it is a welcome addition to our 4 Lake for three worthy reasons. a 1. Asan avid angler myself, Black Crappie is arguably the best tasting of all our local fish. | know that some would argue for Walleye and others would favour Perch, but Crappie is mild, white-fleshed, sweet and utterly deli- cious. 2. They are incredibly scrappy game fish and they grow to a reasonable size as well. 3. At this point there are no catch limits on pan fish including Black Crappie. It is already plentiful. my GIVING THE STATS The Ontario Black Crappie record is 3.78 Ibs. or 1.71 kg, while the average size is only % to 1 pound or .23 to .45 kg. They live up to ten years and a twelve-inch fish would likely be about eight years old. Like other members of the Sunfish family, they school, so when they are found, they are in good numbers. While | have not yet caught a kilo fish, 500 grams plus are fairly common. A FEWTIPS FOR CATCHING CRAPPIE They are easiest to catch in the spring when they congregate in warm back bays to spawn (females will lay up 35,000 eggs), laying their eggs over vegetation in less than 70 centimetres of water (often in as little as 15 centimetres). The eggs, protected in circular nest-type depressions guarded by the males, hatch in seven days. Fall finds them once again congregating in the rivers, canals, and back bays of Lake Scugog following the minnows for a pre-winter feed-up. They will school and suspend in deeper sections of the lake in winter, provid- ing good ice fishing as well. Black Crappie have been a welcome addition to our sport fishing in Scugog and an easy way to add some excitement to the earliest days of spring. Nees Information from the M.N.R. high in the la 007, which lik og from a dum Fish from the into Lal return this y Scugog Lake Stewards Inc. would like to thank Fisheries and Oceans Canada for covering the printing costs of this issue of “Life on the Lake”