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Reply With Quotedstreet, we all pretty much agree on the strength in numbers. Its pretty awesome the numbers of fish being caught on Kaw, Oologah, and Grand. EB
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Trophy King II
I think it all boils down to consecutive years of good spawns, We have had a couple of wet years up here as well but that doesnt always mean that the lake is fluctuating, rains were spread enough as to not get alot of runoff, Kaw hasnt flooded in a few years and if I recall correctly, and the lake hasnt fluctuated more than a couple feet during spawn in the same time, thus GOOD #s of fish. Im not counting the drop in levels to plant and flood the millet for the Duck hunters.
Crappie.com 1K Star General
dstreet, we all pretty much agree on the strength in numbers. Its pretty awesome the numbers of fish being caught on Kaw, Oologah, and Grand. EB
Crappie Wall Hanger II
What can play a big part in less crappie is the crappie hogs that catch and clean a whole school of crappie just because they can!!!!! I have been fishing for about 50 years and two things play a big part in less crappie. No 1 the huge increase in the number of fishermen and #2 our new fish finders and equipment have improved and the addition of GPS has greatly improved our fish catching ability.
Go fishing and enjoy the day and quit bragging that you limited out with 37 fish or 74 or 111 or 148 fish in one fishing trip!
I can say this as believe it to be true and I'm not running for any office.
Crappie Wall Hanger II
Crappie are prolific breeders. They can quickly out number their food source, especially in smaller waters. I've never seen any fish biologist advocate catch and release for crappie.
As big as kaw is, there are truely 5-10 people that fish the lake on a regular basis during the winter season. I've been the only person on the entire lake many times during the week days. I just can't see with the numbers of fish that show up on locators that anybody could even make a dent in the crappie population.
Just my honest opinion. Not trying to be contentious.
Crappie Wall Hanger II
Dennishoddy I do not know anything about Kaw lake. But look what has happened to the following lake in Oklahoma which I have fished and now have 10" size limit and you can only keep 15 fish. Grand, Hudson, Ft Gibson, Claremore Lake and Tenkiller plus other lakes I have not fished. If this doesn't not prove the case I do not know what it will take. Some of these lakes you can not fill the 15 fish limit.
I used to be a quail hunter and did not shot any quail if their were less than 10 remaining birds in covey. You have to have breeding stock if you want a new crop next year!!!!
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Slabmaster II
Two main reasons first fishing pressure water temp.and weather we live in oklahoma not kansas but the kansas guy differ its all about timing.i got canton kaw and sooner figured out bigg slabs on the way.
Minnow
Hit the nail on the head! My thoughts exactly!Originally Posted by minnowtime
Crappie.com 1K Star General
Cormorants take more fish than the fishermen. Of course, they take crappie, shad, sandies, just about everything. And each one eats 1-3 pounds of fish per day. Some "experts say they can eat 5#s per day. Even at 1#, you put 1000-10,000 (The Oklahoman one time had a headline that there were 9000 cormorants on Lake Hefner) cormorants on a lake, that's .5 to 5 tons of fish per day. Yet PETA got them on the endangered species list.
Trophy King
I don't agree that over fishing is the issue. Grand is the lake I grew up on and there was a time that it was a fantastic crappie lake. Several years in a row of terrible water fluctuations(Some of that is on GRDA and some on the weather) hurt the spawn a LOT. There aren't enough guys that consistently catch limits to have a real big effect on it.
