As Sardis Lake fishermen prepare for what is predicted to be a great month of crappie fishing, state fisheries director Ron Garavelli offers some ominous October advice. “Enjoy it, because it will get tough for a long, long time,” said Garavelli, himself an avid Sardis troller. “October and November are the peak months for trolling for crappie and it ought to be great up there this year because most of those 2009 fish have made it to legal size (12 inches). They’re already biting like crazy.
“The bad news is, that’s about all there is. Due to poor water levels in the spring, Sardis hasn’t had a decent spawn since. We know 2010 was extremely poor and 2011 wasn’t great. We think we had a good one this spring (2012) and we’ll know for sure when we do our fall net surveys.”
The problem is obvious. Garavelli, the longtime chief of fisheries for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, said it takes Sardis crappie between 3 and 3½ years to reach 12 inches.
“Once those 2009s are gone, and they were catching limits of them before this weather change, it’s gonna be slim pickings for a couple of years until we get more recruitment,” he said.
Sardis Lake is a unique fishery to Mississippi, creating a fall pattern that makes its crappie extremely vulnerable. With water temperatures cooling and levels in the flood-control reservoir starting its scheduled fall (16 feet by Dec. 1), the fish form big schools suspended over main lake points.
Fishermen simply need to cover a lot of water putting food in the strike zone and the fish can’t help but bite.
“They are extremely vulnerable to trolling, especially with Bandit 300 crankbaits,” Garavelli said. “They catch a lot of them drifting with minnows and jigs, too. It is amazing to see when you get a bunch of boats all working in one area and so many rods bent over and people reeling in fish.”
MDWFP officials reduced the boat creel limit earlier this year to protect the 2009 year class, hoping to get some of them through the fall and winter into the spring spawning season. The daily limit remains 20 per angler per day, with a minimum length limit of 12 inches. However, only 50 per boat are allowed this year for boats with three or more anglers.
“The intent of this new regulation is to slow the harvest of this important resource during the 2012 fall and winter seasons,” Garavelli said. “The survivors of the 2009 year class will contribute to the 2013 spawn and harvest. Hopefully, water levels next year will be higher and the crappie will not be as vulnerable to harvest.”
Weather this fall could be a major factor in Sardis fishing for years to come.
“Every day that is too windy or too rainy to fish will have an impact,” Garavelli said. “That’s how much pressure that lake gets.”
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