BY LARRY DABLEMONT | March 25, 2026

I’ve got a couple of things to pass along concerning Ozark lakes that are really interesting. One is about crappie fishing in Norfork Lake where biologists just recently finished a lead-net sampling of fish. They checked about 700 crappie to learn the ages associated with different sizes. From their reports it looks like there will be some exceptional fishing for black crappie this spring on Norfork with a big improvement over their findings from 2022.

The Fisheries division of the Department submits this report…..

“Crappie in Norfork Lake are reaching harvestable size (10 inches) in just 2- 3 years and growing to 12 inches by age 3-4. The collected fish ranged from 3.4 to 14.6 inches, with an average size of 9.7 inches. Perhaps the most exciting finding was the large number of 1.5-year-old crappie averaging around 8 inches in length. This strong year class indicates excellent fishing opportunities on the horizon as these fish reach prime harvestable size in the coming year or two. The sample was dominated by Black Crappie (89 percent), likely due to clear-water conditions in Norfork Lake, which favor Black Crappie over White Crappie.”

Then there was news from the Missouri Fisheries division that beginning now, the 15-inch length limit on bass at Table Rock Lake will pertain only to largemouth and smallmouth but not to spotted bass. Spotted bass and Kentucky bass are the same fish with two different names. And the new length limit on that fish is 12 inches. The average fisherman cannot tell the difference between a 12-inch spotted bass and a 12-inch largemouth just by looking at them. 

Spotted bass, though the belly spots for which they were named may not be as prominent, can always be distinguished by the rough, rasp-like patch on top of the tongue. If it is a largemouth the top of the tongue is smooth. Fisheries biologists know all about the differences but I doubt if many conservation agents can tell one from the other if the fish is in the 12- to 15-inch range. There’ll be some problems there with a few fishermen getting them mixed up and keeping a 12-inch largemouth.

Spotted bass are not native to Ozark streams where smallmouth are found. Smallmouth males sometimes cross with spotted bass females and create a hybrid between the two that some anglers refer to as a ‘mean-mouth’. Fisheries biologist say that they do not like the spotted bass thriving in smallmouth waters as they compete for habitat and food that the largemouth does not seem suited for. Therefore, it can be said that largemouth in smallmouth rivers are not as much of a problem for smallmouth as the spotted bass are.

I have a favorite hard-to-get-to stretch of water on the Sac River where spotted bass grow unusually large. In most waters they grow much slower than largemouth and if you ever land a five-pound spotted bass you’ve done something akin to landing a six-pound smallmouth. They just don’t get that big without a few more years of growth. Even smallmouth get to four pounds quicker than spotted bass. A largemouth will get to four pounds in an Ozark river in about five or six years. A smallmouth needs about eight years to reach four pounds and a spotted bass needs about ten years to accomplish that size. If a spotted bass reaches 12-inches a largemouth of the same age has probably reached 15. So, there is the reason for this new regulation shortening the spotted bass length limit in Table Rock and it ought to be done the same on every lake and river in the state.

The Sac River stretch I mentioned has walleye and largemouth too but the spotted bass outnumber largemouth and there are no smallmouth to speak of in that western Missouri River. I keep spotted bass when I want fish to eat because unlike smallmouth the meat is very white and solid and tasty. In that stretch on the Sac I once caught three or four spotted bass above three-pounds in a couple of hours and then landed one above four pounds.

One spring afternoon a friend and I motored up a large tributary to the Sac and found a small bluff-hole just full of spotted bass weighing about one to two pounds. We must have caught 20 there where the water was about 10-feet deep and dinghy colored from a spring rain. On our light gear it was some fishing I will never forget.

You can despise the spotted bass because they hurt native smallmouth but you can’t gripe about the way they fight. Get a two- to three-pounder on light gear and you won’t be complaining.

Read about all kinds of fishing on my book “Recollections of an Old-Fashioned Angler”.