Mississippi Crappie Tracking Now at Enid Lake

The location of the four-year cooperative crappie tracking project conducted by the University of Mississippi and the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) has moved from Sardis to Enid Lake. The goal is to learn more about the spawning areas of crappie in our local reservoirs.

The Ole Miss crappie research team, aided by guides John Woods and Tony Willis, recently tagged and released 28 crappie into Enid Lake. Radio transmitters were inserted in the fish and orange identification tags with a contact number were secured to the dorsal fin.  Any angler who catches a tagged fish is asked to call the number on the tag, report the location and date of where the fish was caught and return the transmitter (if the angler wants to keep the fish) so that it may be placed in another fish. Prizes are being offered for certain tag numbers.

Dr. Glen Parsons and Dylan Williams will be tracking fish through late summer. The GPS locations of these fish will be posted on the MDWFP website and regularly updated “The things we learn through this project are important for having a better crappie fishery,” Parsons said. “We may be able to identify changes in behavior with weather, as well as changes in behavior with season, and we may be able to identify places around Enid that are particularly important crappie spawning habitat. Knowing fishermen as I do, they recognize that these things are important.”  If you catch a tagged crappie, call Dylan Williams at (662) 501-6547 or Dr. Glenn Parsons at (662) 202-8013.

Mississippi Wildlife Fisheries and Parks

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks (MDWFP), formerly known as the Mississippi Game & Fish Commission, is an agency of the government of the U.S. state ofMississippi responsible for programs protecting Mississippi fish and wildlife resources and their habitats, as well as administering all state parks; it has its headquarters in Jackson. The agency issues hunting and fishing licenses, advises on habitat protection, and sponsors public education programs. It is also responsible for enforcement of Mississippi's fish and game laws. It is separate from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, which is the governing body for the state's natural salt-water resources and law enforcement thereof (i.e. Gulf of Mexico, ocean-going vessels, etc.).