ANGLERS GET REWARDS FOR RETURNING CRAPPIE TAGS IN LAKE GREENWOOD STUDY

Fishermen are being asked to help with a S.C. Department of Natural Resources study of the Lake Greenwood crappie population that will determine how many fish succumb to natural mortality and how many are taken by anglers. Cash rewards of up to $100 are being offered for returning crappie tags.

"Black crappie is a popular fishery in Lake Greenwood," said Gene Hayes, fisheries biologist with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) based in Greenwood. "We want to maintain that fishery for years to come and ensure that the crappie population is not over-exploited."

Anglers are urged to contact the Greenwood DNR office on SC 72 if they catch a crappie with a yellow streamer tag. On the tag are printed "SCDNR" and the Greenwood DNR office's phone number, (864) 223-1307. Anglers should call the number and report their name, address, telephone number and where on Lake Greenwood and the date they caught the fish. An identification number and the reward amount is also on the tag, and the fishermen will need to take or mail the tag to the Greenwood DNR office to collect the reward. Most fish are tagged with a $5 reward tag, but there are also reward tags of $10, $50 and $100.

"There have been angler groups that have advocated some changes in the creel and size limits on crappie in Lake Greenwood," Hayes said. "But you can't just place a regulation on a fish population unless you know what percentage of annual mortality is natural and what percentage is attributed to fishing. For instance, it wouldn't make sense to put a size restriction on black crappie if you find that natural mortality is much greater than fishing mortality and that most of the fish die before they reach that size anyway."

Crappie is the third most sought-after freshwater game fish in South Carolina based on a 1996-97 survey of licensed anglers. In Lake Greenwood, crappie-fishing pressure was 150,787 angler hours or 28 percent of the total fishing effort in 1998-99. Black crappie dominated the angling harvest both numerically and in total poundage. Catch rates in Lake Greenwood of two-black-crappie-per-hour of fishing effort greatly exceeded those recorded on Savannah River lakes during the same period.

"Black crappie are truly the 'bread and butter' fishery on Lake Greenwood," Hayes said.

- Written by Greg Lucas -

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