With a current upswing in vegetation, several sampling efforts have shown bluegill numbers increasing. With the number of young bluegills increasing, so to has the belief that these small fish are stunted. Stunting does not occur for Mississippi River bluegill. In fact, river bluegills have extremely fast growth rates. Given three to four years of growth, they are often large enough for the frying pan.
Black crappies are far more prevalent.
They re not as dependent on vegetation and were not as affected by the decline in vegetation. The size structure of these populations have also been stable. Channel catfish have done quite well during the 1990s. Thousands of channels were tagged during a five-year study in Pools 8 and 9. Growth rates were good while angler exploitation was low.