Fantastic information JP. This explains the situation that I am in very well. It also explains why the Missouri Conservation member told me to just stock a few (no more than 6 IIRC) berried females...I didn't listen! It was after their egg carrying period and I bucket stocked a couple hundred that year along with the FHM's and another hundred the following year along with fingerling gamefish.
The creek is not overpopulated, I think it the opposite as it dries up between rainy seasons leaving few shallow standing pools. This leaves them to the racoons, snakes, birds, etc. The spring season allows the creek to produce the early summer season's forage for the wildlife beyond the few fish that wash down from a couple neighboring ponds and swim up from the ever-wet Turkey Creek. I don't think the craws have enough time to get to full size, Winter season allows the creek to flow much more than not allowing the craws to grow some and reproduce to start the cycle again.
An observation I have made is that this week's spring trappings produced craws mostly 4-5" long whereas last falls final trappings were only producing smaller 3" ones. I assumed that I was getting all the larger ones taken out and, now, assume that they grew over the winter.
