It’s been clear to piedmont crappie chasers for about two years that Jordan Lake no longer is the region’s No. 1 slab spot.
Guide Freddie Sinclair said the decline started during 2011.
“Jordan Lake once was known as having the best crappie fishing in the state,” he said. “I think what happened might’ve been weather-related.”
Sinclair said during September 2011, Jordan’s striped bass suffered a massive fish kill during a prolonged heat wave.
“The lake lost between 6,300 and 7,000 stripers,” he said. “The biologist said he didn’t see any crappie floating with the stripers, but since that fish kill, no one has seen crappies at Jordan Lake like they used to be.”
Fishing pressure shouldn’t have caused the problem, Sinclair surmised, because of the lake’s 10-inch minimum size limit and 20-fish daily creel limit. Of the three major reservoirs around the Raleigh-Durham area, only Jordan has size and creel limits for crappie.
Corey Oakley, a fisheries biologist for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, agreed that Jordan’s crappie reputation has suffered since 2011.
“Crappie fishing has been slow at Jordan,” he said. “We’ve done sampling surveys to try to find out what caused it.”
Oakley agreed fishing success began to fall at Jordan during mid-2011, and he noted that Shearon Harris has supplanted Jordan as North Carolina’s top crappie fishery.
“Harris has good plenty of fish over 10 inches, a lot of good-size crappie,” he said. “Because of the (shoreline) grass, anglers do more trolling at Harris. They troll off points and ledges.”
Harris boasts 2-pound crappie and 2-pound white perch, Oakley said.
