Thread: Pickthorne

Guys, we were out there today shocking for bass, and had some interesting results. We shocked 10 runs 10 minutes long each, and came up with a total of 29 bass which is a very low number. However, the fish we caught were all in great shape and the vast majority of them were 2 lbs or greater, with the best few around 5 lbs. We shocked a handful of crappie, one of which was just shy of two pounds. Folks were questioning my opinion that there are too many crappie, but we pulled 1,400+ out of 10 nets set out there for just one night. Of these fish, 1,300 of them were from 3-5.5" long. This is something that I can see using trap nets, but that anglers pulling jigs, goldfish, minnows, whatever, would not be able to see. In the past I have aged crappie that were 3 years old and under 6". This is the result of terrible growth due to extreme competition between these small size classes of fish.

On a brighter note, we shocked a couple of flatheads that were around 8 and 20+ pounds, and a 12 pound channel catfish.

We are going to be doing creel surveys (angler interviews) 4X per month over the next year to get a feel for effort, catch and opinions. These four leveed lakes with no wind breaks and extremely fine clay particles which remain in suspension unless the wind quits for days in a row present some pretty serious management challenges. Ask Mojorig who just left the Jonesboro office, as they had a number of these lakes.

We will go over data, do surveys of the fish and the anglers over the next year, and try to formulate the best plan that we can to maximize the fisheries there despite the challenges.

Originally Posted by Basscat1

So how do you fix the gross overpopulation of the crappie in the lake?

Saugeye