Crappie die-off recovery timing

[Murdock]

A chain of lakes I frequent experienced what I consider a heavy late summer die-off last year. Most were in the 7-9 inch range but I cleaned up 10 there were in the 15 inch range as well. Per the local CO, it was due to the extensive warm weather causing a parasite to infect their gils. He considered it mother natures way of controlling the crappie population. I cleaned up 200+ floaters in one weekend on 100 feet of shoreline. I have heard crappie repopulate fairly quickly, but how quick is "quickly"? Are we talking 1 reproduction year or 3+? Any opinions?

[Kyle Sandberg]

If there are aduquate numbers of crappies left in the lake, they can spawn the next spring. It will take about 3 years to see crappies in the 10" class, maybe faster with the reduced number of fish leading to more forage.

On lakes that have die-offs, growth rate is very rapid during the first couple of years. Give it a little time and pray for good weather and you should see good fishing coming your way.