They started off with the crappie figures and forecasts. It appears 2009 had a very good spawn and those fish are now reaching 10 inches or more. They are forecasting good fishing with a downturn to happen in a few years due to poor spawns (can you say TVA playing games with water levels) recently. They noted they are not prone to change any regulations concerning size or creel limits in a time of plenty. 2 changes that may be proposed in times of poor fish numbers will be 11 inch size limit and 15 fish creel limit. Pole limits were not discussed.

Bass fishing continues to be great and should be in the future.

Trophy catfish on the Ohio River were discussed at length and there will be new creel limits imposed on those to protect the largest catfish. Seems the paylakes and catfish tournaments may be having an adverse effect on those. Paylakes are buying large numbers of large catfish to stock their lakes.

The Asian carp issues were discussed at length. There are soon going to be 3 plants in the KY/Barkley areas that are buying and processing Asian carp. If they can keep the price for those above 15 cents per pound, there will be a huge amount of netting pressure put on the carp for that market. Seems KY is the current leader in research and fishing for those. Other states are starting to take KY's lead and trying to make a commercial market for them. From the numbers of commercial fishermen there, I would say there is a huge desire to get out on the lakes and rivers and do their best to catch all they can haul and sell. Nets in a lot of our traditional fishing areas are something we will all take some time to get used to. All of us working together will get it done.

One thing they did discuss was one of the plants is working on a new way to process the carp that will make essentially a boneless fish product similar to a flaked meat for the grocery . I don't know about you guys but I would have to try such a product in several different methods of cooking before I made a negative judgement on such a product. I have ate the carp a few times and was very impressed with the taste and texture of it.

The meeting was well attended with several from Crappie.com there. Hopefully those who attended will weigh in on this thread.