Theories on Red Lake crappie, walleye equilibrium?

[DDSBYDAY]

  I would be interested in hearing your theories.   It doesn't make sense to me.  The results are facts but I have not found the reason.  My question is what happened and why?

   Fact-Red lake over harvest leads to a decimated walleye population.
   Fact- with walleye population gone crappie population goes crazy.

    Why did the crappie take off?  Their primary forage is not the same.  Their primary structure hangouts are not the same.  Do the walleye predate the newly hatched crappie?  What circumstances lead to the explosion of the crappie population?

    We know that with the rebound of the walleye the crappie fishing has slowed.  I have not heard the biologic reason this scenario played out.  It happened but how?  I would like to hear your theories.

[corny13]

Ill go with the walleyes are major crappie predators at some point in their lives.  Leech lake's walleye population was in the major hurt bag 6 years ago...not as bad as Red Lake... and the last two years has been the best big bluegill fishing it has ever had... kinda the same....bet the bluegill taper off also..now that the walleye are back.

[FireRanger]

X2 corny. I believe it is predation by Walleye causing the Crappie poppy to fall. I think they are both one of the apex predators in Red Lake as far as numbers are concerned. Now that the Walleye pop has comeback the Crappie have felt the brunt. When the Walleye were almost obsolete they had no other fish to compete with for their forage and thus the population explosion. My .02.

[wallyhntr1]

Would be a question for our DNR wingnuts... although their information is scewed by the fact they allow a gill netting agreement, an agreement our DNR never has or will say hurts resources..

[glenn57]

what these guys said with the walleye population along with the most perfect mother nature conditions that allowed for an exceptional year class crappie hatch!!

[DDSBYDAY]

   I think going by the end result  walleye   must predate crappie at some point.  My guess would be in the newly hatched point of their lives.  Could even be by walleye fingerlings only.  It's anybodies guess.  However if I had to pick a species that would benifit from the lack of walleye I would have thought the perch/pike populations would take off.  Maybe they would have.  I don't know if the netting took care of keeping these populations down too.  The next question would be why only crappie?  Did the sunfish population take off too?  Inquiring minds want to know? 

[DDSBYDAY]

   Well, a part of the mystery was solved for me  on the lake of no fish this weekend.  I was  fishing off of a small sunken island with weeds on the top.  The walleyes came in around dusk.  One of the eyes coughed up a nice inch and 1/2 long, partially digested crappie.   

[Fish Guide]

It's all about preditor prey relationships.   If you understand the basics of the "pecking order" it will make you a better angler as well.  The crappies will eat walleye, pike, perch (anything) fry/fingerlings as well, the reverse is also true.  Nearly all fish are canabalistic.  When fishing pressure cleaned out the Red Lake crappies, the DNR jumped on the opportunity to re-stock the 'eyes, Im guessing if the pressure wouldn't have crushed the crappie fishing, the walleye might never have been stocked?  It's all about timing.  Many times when I am researching a new lake to fish walleye and I am using the DNR net data etc , I am also looking to see how the perch and panfish populations are structured--not just the number of walleyes and size of walleyes found in the nets.  This helps me to predict the actual "numbers" of eye's per acre-which is important to me.  On the note of you catching a 'eye with a crappie in it, One local body of water --The horshoe chain-- near Richmond, MN.  the small crappies are a staple in the walleyes diet of that lake.  On a side note, I also used to fish a quarry for large rainbow trout  which almost always had bluegills in their stomach.

[cookie]

My understanding  is when the walleye crashed we had the perfect weather conditions for a huge crappie hatch. For three weeks in the early summer there was zero winds. red lake was like a giant bay. We do not have the bays to protect the hatch  like other lakes. The nice thing is there still and always will be a few crappies roaming upper red lake. Last june 1rst we got 28 in 2 days with all of them coming in less then 6 feet of water. I wouls say that is the best time to target them. My plans at this time are to leave the houses out and look for the mother load the rest of the season once the game fish season ends sunday .