Photo by keith sutton

If this were a weather forecast, you’d close this magazine after reading what follows and think, “Bluebird skies . . . in every direction!” The 2008 outlook for Kansas crappie is indeed good.

Lakes you’ve read about here for decades are included again because the Sunflower State offers a factory-like crappie fishery when it comes to production. Times are pretty good, and this current welcome situation can be attributed in large part to the rains that fell long and hard throughout the eastern half of the state during last year’s late spring and early summer.

“Heading into the 2008 season, the overall health of our crappie fishery, statewide, is above average,” said biologist Kyle Austin of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. As this was being written, Austin and biologists all over the state were still completing the annual population samples that give them the best idea of how things look. But from his office at KDWP headquarters in Pratt, Austin has been staying on the phone with biologists statewide.

“I’d like to have the data in front of me,” he said, “but the anecdotal information I’m getting suggests what I believe the data will bear out -- that our crappie are in good shape in most waters around the state. The rains we had last year were really helpful in that regard.”

As he talked, Austin touched on the edges of Kansas’ crappie dynamics. It’s a fascinating story that will help you understand why the lakes included in this story have been great destinations for crappie chasers, and why they are again this year.

Before getting into that, however, let’s talk about the places you should be focusing on once again this season.

“Our best major reservoirs are going to be Toronto, Hillsdale and Perry,” Austin said. “When it comes to white crappie, all of them have plenty of fish in the 7- to 8-inch range, and that bodes well for the long-term health of the fisheries.” (Of course, those numbers don’t mean much to anglers who prefer Hillsdale and Perry because of 10-inch-minimum lengths imposed there.)

“Fishermen have nothing to worry about,” Austin continued. “They’re going to find good numbers of ‘keeper’ crappie at those two lakes, and at Toronto. The minimum-length and creel-limit regulations we have on Hillsdale and Perry do a lot to provide good fishing opportunities to anglers who enjoy fishing those lakes.”

After asking Austin a few more questions about those two spots and Kansas crappie in general, it quickly became apparent that no crappie angler should believe that the biggest plus of the regulations on Hillsdale and Perry is protection. It’s not.