Several lakes receive crappie boost

MDWFP stocks Eagle with whites, others get Magnolias

From extremely popular oxbows to heavily fished state fishing lakes, state fisheries personnel have been busy stocking crappie to insure future fishing opportunities.

Two popular oxbows, Eagle Lake north of Vicksburg in Warren County and Bee Lake north of Yazoo City in Holmes County, recently received a total of 147,500 white crappie.

“We have learned that if we stock Eagle Lake, white crappie do well,” said John Skains of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. “Crappie just don’t spawn well there, at least not the white crappie. Eagle has a good population of black crappie, but we have to put the white crappie there for the whites to succeed.”

A similar situation exists at Bee Lake, a much smaller oxbow, which also received some Magnolia Crappie.

Ten lakes in the MDWFP’s state lake and state park systems received a total of 126,000 Magnolia Crappie. Those stockings included Roosevelt State Park and Tombigbee State Park, as well as Jeff Davis, Mike Conner, Simpson County, Prentiss Walker, Claude Bennett, Kemper County, Tippah County and Lamar Bruce lakes. They were also stocked in the fishing lake at Charlie Capps Wildlife Management Area.

In the past, those lakes were never considered for stocking with crappie, for fear of overpopulation. The Magnolia Crappie changed that.

The Magnolia Crappie is a lab-produced fish first produced by the MDWFP. It is a cross between a female white crappie and a male black-striped black crappie. The black-striped crappie has a dark stripe from the dorsal fin down the top of the head and mouth to the throat.

“The Magnolia Crappie is sterile making it an ideal choice to stock into small impoundments,” said Larry Bull, assistant director of fisheries for the MDWFP Director. “Since it cannot reproduce it cannot cause overpopulation problems.”

And because little energy is spent on reproduction, Magnolia Crappie grow quickly.

All of the stocked crappie were reared at the MDWFP’s North Mississippi Fish Hatchery located near Enid.