The South's Best Shellcracker Holes
Louisiana – Caney Lake
 Editor’s
Note: I like to catch plenty of fish that fight hard,
test my tackle and my angling skill s
and taste delicious when I eat them. These characteristics
describe the shellcracker (redear sunfish) with its
nicknames of stumpknocker and yellow bream. The South
homes some of the biggest shellcrackers, so named due
to the grinding teeth in their throats that crush snails,
shells and mollusks, in the nation.
Caney Lake in northeast Louisiana produced nine of
the top-10 shellcrackers caught in the state’s
record book. Although there hasn’t been a record-breaking
fish out of Caney Lake since 2003, it’s still
known for producing big shellcracker. In 1998, the state-record
shellcracker caught in Caney Lake weighed 2.87 pounds.
“One of the reasons Caney Lake is one of the
top shellcracker and bass lakes is that the Department
of Wildlife and Fisheries has been involved with the
lake since its construction and continues to manage
the lake today,” Scott Longmen, fisheries biologist
for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries,
comments. “We’ve done extensive sampling
and monitoring o f
the fish populations there and proven that good management
will produce big shellcrackers and big bass.”
Ryan Daniels, fisheries biologist for Caney Lake, says
that, “One of the reasons Caney Lake produ ces
so many shellcrackers is the lake has huge mussel populations
and plenty of shallow-water mussel beds where shellcrackers
like to feed and bed. Although we don’t have much
vegetation in Caney Lake, shellcrackers make their homes
around the mussel beds. During the spring and the summer,
you can catch shellcrackers almost anywhere in the lake.
But during the winter months, you’ll find shellcrackers
in deep water in front of the spillway.”
By using nightcrawlers, you’ll locate fish in
the spillway as deep as 30 feet. During the spring,
shellcrackers are found on humps in about 3 to 5 feet
of water. One-pound shellcrackers are fairly common.
You’ll also catch plenty of shellcrackers that
weigh 1-1/2-pounds, and occasionally, a fish that weighs
2 pounds or more.
For more information about Caney Lake, visit
http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/kisatchie/caney-rd/index.htm.
Tomorrow: Lake Seminole and World-Record Shellcrackers
Caught
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