Crappie tracking project moves to Enid Lake

Tagged crappie have released in Enid Lake as part of a program to learn more about the fish.

MDWFP and University of Mississippi working to better understand crappie spawning patterns.

The crappie tracking project aimed at learning more about crappie spawning areas in local reservoirs has been moved from Sardis to Enid Lake, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks said.

The MDWF and the University of Mississippi are working together on the project.The Ole Miss crappie research team, aided by guides John Woods and Tony Willis, recently tagged and released 28 crappie into Enid Lake. Radio transmitters were inserted in the fish and orange identification tags with a contact number were secured to the dorsal fin.

Any angler catching a tagged fish is asked to call the number on the tag, report the location and date of where the fish was caught and return the transmitter (if the angler wants to keep the fish) so it can be placed in another fish.

Prizes are being offered for certain tag numbers.
Dr. Glen Parsons and Dylan Williams will be tracking fish through late summer. The GPS locations of these fish will be posted on the MDWFP website and regularly updated.

“The things we learn through this project are important for having a better crappie fishery,” Parsons said. “We may be able to identify changes in behavior with weather, as well as changes in behavior with season, and we may be able to identify places around Enid that are particularly important crappie spawning habitat.

“Knowing fishermen as I do, they recognize that these things are important.”

Call Dylan Williams at 662.501.6547 or Dr. Glenn Parsons at 662.202.8013 If you catch a tagged crappie.

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