Panfish growth rates

[fishuhalik]

What's the typical growth rates on a healthy, non-stunted metro area lake for crappies and gills? I typically put crappies in the bucket at about 9", is that a 4,5,6, etc yr old fish? Just wondering cuz a lake I use to fish had a banner year of yearling crappies in 2001, and I'm wondering how big those fish will be by now.

[waterbound]

I know in lakes with slow growing (not stunted) sunfish it can take about a year to grow an inch. I imagine a 9" sunnie from an average lake would be 6-7 years old. Crappies probably grow faster so I would imagine a 9 year old crappie could be 12-14 inches. Don't take these as definite facts though, I am only estimating sizes based on growth rates of sunnies in a lake known to possess a naturally slow growing population.

[Scott M]

It is so lake to lake specific based on a variety of factors, that you are better off sending an email to the west or east metro offices and asking about the specific lake and species of interest. They would be able to tell you right on the nose, otherwise there can be some speculating amongst metro waters with varying water chemistry, fish abundance and angling pressure, etc.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Da- I was hoping you would see this post and answer.. I understand how many variables there are.. but is there anyway of posting just a general average? I would find it very interesting.

[fishuhalik]

Yeah, just an average for eutrophic, mesotrophic, and oligotrophic (sp?) lakes in general would be awesome.

[Tom7227]

If you do the Bing "sunfish growth rates" a ton of articles pop up. Some are advertising [PoorWordUsage] for fish food but some are actually decent research pieces. Simple answer to the posted question is:

it depends......