Thread: North St. Johns Fishing

Huntinslabs, The larger fish clearly have better genetics. That seems quite self-evident. The larger female slabs should be released since they are ready to reproduce. You and I would appreciate this practice so we can increase our odds each season...not just for bigger fish, but for quantity as well. I welcome your debate based on any evidence you can produce to support your argument other than word of mouth.

Word of mouth came from a State of Florida Biologist with a degree in Biology. So I am gonna gamble that he and she knew what they were talking about more so than your hunches. I am not wanting to debate with you, wish you would have attended the slabfest last year so you could have discussed and debated with them. If you remember I was in the same exact frame of mind as you until that point last year. I thought that we needed a 12" minimum on several lakes like you. But after spending about an hour in between them cutting earbones and aging fish I understood what they were saying. And these biologists were solely Crappie biologists for the State of Florida.

Well, it doesn't take much research to uncover contradictory information. I have read and can quote from other "crappie biologists" who claim that releasing the larger fish is the best practice for the best future fishing. In fact, contradictory research and understanding of this subject is noted in virtually every book, magazine and fishing show I've seen or read. AND, I can guarantee you that they(biologists) did not promote it desirable to keep slab females in the spawning phase. Come on now Mike.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/ask-b...pie-spawn.html quick look on here posts 4 and 5 are biologists from Missouri.

Interesting...but hardly the gospel here Mike. I also thought that crappie live up to 12 years in certain states and in different lakes. So I don' t think you can apply a one size fits all hard rule here. I understand that crappie in Florida grow quite large in a short period of time....so in other words, a 9-10 inch crappie is not that old in Florida. You may want to rethink about whether you want to advocate keeping fat-bellied spawning females over the internet.

Originally Posted by Crappielover

Maybe have a lower bracket too and call it Bronze Club from 1.lb 9oz - 1lb 15oz. Then the Silver Club from 2lb - 2.9oz and then for those who have caught and verified a 2lb 10oz - 3lb + call it the Gold Club.
What do ya think Speckanator Mike?

good breakdown I like it!

Here is another post from Alabama...it goes a little something like this:

Many of our lakes don't produce the numbers and quality of crappie as they once did. Some years we have droughts and poor spawns and the result is poor fishing for several years. Then we have heavy rains, high water and great spawns and good fishing for a year or 2. Think about it, good spawns provide good fishing, poor spawns provide poor fishing in the following years.

The answer to good fish numbers and quality of fish is good spawns and good habitat. So why not practice catch and release when we catch females full of eggs, and they are easy to recognize with swollen bellys full of eggs. One mature female crappie may lay between 10,000 to 30,000 eggs or more. Unfortunately on 2% survive to maturity.
Every female we take during the spawn is really 100 to 300 crappie that never survive.

With current boats, electronics, fishing tackle, and cell phones - the fish don't have a chance. I would like to encourage all crappie anglers to practice catch and release for 2 weeks each year during the spawn. The other 50 weeks of the year would be fantastic and all our favorite lakes would get better. It worked for bass anglers and it will work for crappie, too. But it will only work if we all practice catch and release with females, just for 2 weeks, what a difference it would make. I promise to release all the females full of eggs I catch and keep only the males and females that have already laid their eggs, will YOU ?

Originally Posted by Crappielover

Interesting...but hardly the gospel here Mike. I also thought that crappie live up to 12 years in certain states and in different lakes. So I don' t think you can apply a one size fits all hard rule here. I understand that crappie in Florida grow quite large in a short period of time....so in other words, a 9-10 inch crappie is not that old in Florida. You may want to rethink about whether you want to advocate keeping fat-bellied spawning females over the internet.

I will bet money that you can not recreationally out fish Crappie on the St. Johns River System. Eat all the fat bellied females ya want it will never happen!! Find any biologist that will argue that. Find any biologist that will tell you that if you catch a hundred 14" fat bellied females on the St. Johns River System and let them go and it would make a difference.