Catch and Release

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Originally Posted by NIMROD

Best we can hope for is fewer floods . When we get our annual floods with this being flood control lake the woods and old fields are full of water . This makes ideal spawning habitat . With huge spawns and when water drops back to normal pool we have way too many fry . This slows growth and hurts the fishery . We need a special regulation for a few years to take the limit off Crappie 9'' and under . But was told they could not do it . Some people keep the little ones but many folks just toss them back .
I would like to see a slot where anything under 9'' would be no limit . I think we could see the lake improve . This limit being raised to 30 could help if everyone kept 30 small ones . But I don't want them . I usually have no problem catching 100 or more but sometimes hard to find good ones .
I think we need more baitfish . Most would disagree with that statement but when most are Gizzard Shad they grow too fast to be prime feed for smaller Crappie . Trouble is a shallow flood control lake gets too cold to over winter Threadfin Shad .
The AGFC did annual studies where they counted what we had in the lake by net barrier across a cove and rotenone for years. Now they are limited to electro fishing and Crappie net traps last I heard. Wish we could hear from the area fisheries biologist . I think they don't have an answer to the problem .
Maybe Matt or one of the other AGFC guys can contact them and have them tell us what they can do . i think the main one in this area is Frank Leone .

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All you have to do to hear what the area fisheries biologist has to say is to call him. Frank Leone 877-967-7577

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Originally Posted by BigRiverMarine

Mississippi's Big 4 lakes are all flood plain reservoirs and they dont have that issue. They have tremendous spawns most years. They do have cycles where they don't tho. Why is it that Nimrod is different than those lakes, and overpopulates?



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The difference isn't the spawns it is the recruitment of crappie to the fishery. Just because a lake has a good spawn, doesn't always translate to strong year classes. I spoke with Keith Meals, the fisheries biologist over the MS flood control lakes. He told me that the key to the fisheries down there is that they have poor recruitment (a small fraction of the fish that are spawned, make it to harvestable size). This combined with high length limits and fast growth, grow big crappie. On most Arkansas lakes, we have really good recruitment. It is completely different biologically on the MS big 4 and Arkansas lakes. It is very difficult getting anglers to understand why lake Nimrod isn't like Grenada.

In reply to your post D10 (sorry I don't know your name), what is the solution on Nimrod? Just trying to learn something. Been following this thread and curious.

Calvin



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Originally Posted by armyman

In reply to your post D10 (sorry I don't know your name), what is the solution on Nimrod? Just trying to learn something. Been following this thread and curious.

Calvin



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Calvin - the short answer is there might not be anything that can be done to make Nimrod have fewer small crappie and more big crappie. Sometimes Mother Nature (the effects of high water and flooding) are much more influential than regulations (length limits and creel limits). One suggestion that seems like it would work on the surface is to take the creel limit off of crappie under a certain size (under 9-in). There are a couple of problems with this. There are a lot of Nimrods (CA Douglas) out there that will not harvest small crappie. They would rather go some where else where they can keep bigger fish. Another problem is that the small fish are also the youngest fish and the most numerous. So every year you would be facing the battle of trying to thin out the small crappie that represent the most abundant and youngest year class. Definitely an uphill battle that probably wouldn't work like you might think it would. Sometime you just have to make lemonade out of lemons instead of trying to turn it into apple juice. Hopefully this makes sense.


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Thanks, Matt. I know nobody enjoys catching short fish! Therein lies the problem. I understand your dilemma....but you gotta start somewhere! My SIL was born and raised in Arizona....he said crappie there were considered trash fish and threw them on the bank. I said WHAT!!! That was 20 yrs ago, now he fishes for crappie here in Sippi! Maybe that's Nimrod's solution...extreme, but dunno.
Calvin

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Throwing them on the bank is against the law. You can't waste game fish. There is no easy solution or it would have been tried or done.


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Great fish, glad to see you return it to live and produce many more during the spawn.

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Sorry Bill! Great fish!


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Good catch

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Originally Posted by BigRiverMarine

Had a great 3 days across the creek this weekend. Lots of fish caught. With enough fish in our freezers, my partner and I released em all. Pay it forward guys. Your kids and grandkids will thank you later.

If ya NEEED em, Eat em. The rest chunk back for another day.

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BRM

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Those are some great looking fish. Thanks for sharing the catch and release. The future for our children.

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