Crappie at East Canyon

[Kevin_VanDam]

I've noticed some crappie fry in the bellies of trout at East Canyon and was wondering if anyone has caught a crappie of decent size from there? If there are a lot of fry then there must be an adult population in there somewhere. I'd imagine they'd be hard to catch though with all of the slimers running around.[fishon]
[signature]

[wiperhunter2]

There have been crappie in EC for at least 10 years and yes there are bigger ones there. There have been reports of them getting up to 10 or 11 inches but I have not heard of anyone catching them through the ice up there. It could be that no one has targeted them in the winter but who knows. Who knows, you could be the first to ice one there, you should give it a try[]. A lot of folks do good at Pineview in the narrows so that area close to the dam at EC might be worth a try[:/]. Good luck if you make it up there.
WH2
[signature]

[DKStroutfitter]

You may want to ask Bassrods about the Bass and Crappie in East Canyon.
He has said that he was there when they were stocked.
[signature]

[bassrods]

Bass yes crappie no...

But I have caught crappie up to 10 1/2" and smaller, and see them by most of the brush in the lake...
[signature]

[jonesnforfish]

I have hooked Crappie in East Canyon but never through the ice. The biggest was about six inches. I did this in the summer with my fly rod, stripping streamers. I second targeting the areas of brush.
[signature]

[fishguru73]

I have gone after crappie at EC numerous times and had alot of success. There are some larger fish in the 2lb plus range that are found most easily in the spring and fall. I know crappie are an illegal introduction, but the rainbows have gotten really sizeable with the abundance of crappie fry and I see the presence of crappie as a plus to to the food source. The DWR and avid slimer aficionados have another take on the subject altogether and more than 50,000 tiger trout were introduced into the reservoir last fall to knock down the population and they have done that more than efficiently. The crappie fishing has gotten really slow and not only is the panfish population taking a big hit but so is the population of stocked rainbows. I love catching tigers, but they are eating everything they can fit in their mouths and the whole lake is suffering for the catch rate. Rotenone is too expensive to use these days so the DWR resorts to other methods based on conjecture. Here's my conjecture. The tigers will prevail for a short time because they are sterile and if you want to catch them then you should use jigs and cut bait through the ice. The rainbow population will recover once the tiger population begins to regress. With an average of at least 100,000 eggs per adult female crappie, they will make a big comeback but it will take a few years. The big positive I can see is that the smallmouth population will be put in check and there will be larger fish showing up beginning this spring.

[signature]

[Hooter_Patrol]

Hey K-V
We was up there two weeks ago and a friend
stuck a real nice crappie it was 11 or 12" the biggest I have sine bout I'm not a crappie fisherman ????
He took pictures of it with his cell phone will see if he still has them, He C&R everything he catches . so I know that one is still in there hahahah. []
[signature]

[Kevin_VanDam]

Thanks for all the great info. So it sounds like there's definitely a good population of crappie in there but has anyone been able to specifically target them through the ice and have success? With all the active trout in there I can imagine it being hard to target the crappie because both crappie and trout like to suspend.

I think it is disappointing that the tigers have put such a dent in the crappie population. It sure would be nice to have another place besides Pineview to catch some good sized crappie. Even though the dwr didn't put the crappies in there I agree with fishguru73 that they are a great food source for the trout. Another argument for the crappie is that neither the rainbows or the tiger trout are native species either. How many trout lakes do we really need? Crappie taste soooo much better than trout do.[fishon]
[signature]

[fishguru73]

Hallelujah and amen Kevin.[]
[signature]