Your Thoughts?

[steve telinda]

I love crappie fishing and I really love Dale Hollow Lake I also have no issue at all with fishing torment's conducted with fish conservation in mind, but I`m not sure how I feel about that first annual crappie shoot out on Dale Hollow lake last week,

I`m confused as to how good this was for the lakes crappie population or no effect on it? There were approximately 200 boats two anglers per boat, seven fish limit, now you do the math best as you can guess as to how many fish they culled just to get the seven fish limit for weigh in. Keep in mind many of these teams came from all over the country so you know these folks know how to fish and fish well.

So based on what some anglers said and pictures all over the internet and face book, hundreds and hundreds probably more crappie died. There are pictures from angler`s cell phones of coolers and some of live wells filled with dead fish. I bet if this was a bass tournament things would be different right?

So, why would a tournament director allow this? As most were saying the crappie in the lake were very deep in many cases. Yanking them up from that depth killed them. If they were short or not big enough back in they went belly up.

Yes I know many dead fish were donated to church's and other groups as wonderful as that is that's not the point, its about how this crappie shoot out was organized and the outcome of countless numbers of waisted fish all in the name of fishing for money?

So in your opinion does events like this hurt a lake or nothing to worry about ? I`m just not sure?

[slabeye]

i am not sure how much of an impact it is on the fish population right now. But in my opinion as the tourney gets more and more popular the fishing pressure is going to increase and that might hurt the fishing population in the future. I fish green, cumberland and dale hollow and I have already seen the fishing pressure go way up since there has been tourneys on green and cumberland lakes. With all the dead fish at dale hollow it has to look really bad for tourneys. I think they should have put more thought into the time of year they have the tourney and a better way to catch and release live fish...In years passed probably most of those fish wouldn't have been caught but now with livescopes tourney directors need to take a closer look in the time of year to have tourneys.

[Ketchn]

Crappie rebound well, might make it rough on big fish though for a few years numbers wise though.
Some lakes are so full of crappie it probably really don’t matter.
Most of it depends on the average age class in the lake currently and how much harvesting by Mother Nature is occurring as well.
I wonder about a lot of things in crappie tournaments and often wonder why 7 , why is live bait is ok , and the list goes on.
We have laws on deep lakes here that start in a quick minute that help ensure the deep water fish don’t go back to be pelican food.
First 25 HAVE to be kept , it eliminates the huge wakes of floaters I used to see in the 70eez during the winter.
I will mention this though, targeting one age class only on any species is not the best idea in most cases.
Pretty sure the introduction of LS hurt the 3 lb age class in one lake east of Dallas.

[Alphahawk]

Crappie rebound well, might make it rough on big fish though for a few years numbers wise though.
Some lakes are so full of crappie it probably really don’t matter.
Most of it depends on the average age class in the lake currently and how much harvesting by Mother Nature is occurring as well.
I wonder about a lot of things in crappie tournaments and often wonder why 7 , why is live bait is ok , and the list goes on.
We have laws on deep lakes here that start in a quick minute that help ensure the deep water fish don’t go back to be pelican food.
First 25 HAVE to be kept , it eliminates the huge wakes of floaters I used to see in the 70eez during the winter.
I will mention this though, targeting one age class only on any species is not the best idea in most cases.
Pretty sure the introduction of LS hurt the 3 lb age class in one lake east of Dallas.

While I don’t think this tourney fishing will hurt Dale Hollow, if it were not for regular stockings of black nose crappie in Dale Hollow it would not recover. It has been several decades since the first batch of black nose were brought in from Arkansas. Since then TN hatcheries have produced millions of black nose crappie to stock our lakes. I have read several times where you have said Texas does not stock crappie…but TN does. They have to. Dale Hollow…and Center Hill lakes….while they are large, deep, and clean bodies of water the reproduction of crappie has not done well there. Many folks who fish those lakes are not even aware that the stockings go on there. It is also the same at Normandy and Tims Ford. Without black nose stockings…not many crappie.

Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

[CrappiePappy]

While I don’t think this tourney fishing will hurt Dale Hollow, if it were not for regular stockings of black nose crappie in Dale Hollow it would not recover. It has been several decades since the first batch of black nose were brought in from Arkansas. Since then TN hatcheries have produced millions of black nose crappie to stock our lakes. I have read several times where you have said Texas does not stock crappie…but TN does. They have to. Dale Hollow…and Center Hill lakes….while they are large, deep, and clean bodies of water the reproduction of crappie has not done well there. Many folks who fish those lakes are not even aware that the stockings go on there. It is also the same at Normandy and Tims Ford. Without black nose stockings…not many crappie.

Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

I'm only familiar with Watts Bar, and they for sure stock Crappie in it. We've caught Blacknose from there for decades. Pretty sure that over time there've been many of them lock thru into Chickamauga. We just stopped going down there a few years ago, as our adventures yielded little to show for our efforts.

[Atimm693]

I've read that biologists say anglers have little affect on the crappie population, they are very prolific, conditions during the spawn are what make or break a year class.

I tend to agree, seems like most lakes are cyclical, having good years and bad years for crappie, it's not like those lakes don't get pounded on the bad years.

I also think that with the amount of guides out there pulling multiple limits out of a lake several days a week, plus anglers and tournaments, it has to make a dent in the population. That's a lot of fish. But nature adapts, if all that suddenly stopped we'd probably have a lake full of dinks, or disease would wipe them out.

[Alphahawk]

I've read that biologists say anglers have little affect on the crappie population, they are very prolific, conditions during the spawn are what make or break a year class.

I tend to agree, seems like most lakes are cyclical, having good years and bad years for crappie, it's not like those lakes don't get pounded on the bad years.

I also think that with the amount of guides out there pulling multiple limits out of a lake several days a week, plus anglers and tournaments, it has to make a dent in the population. That's a lot of fish. But nature adapts, if all that suddenly stopped we'd probably have a lake full of dinks, or disease would wipe them out.

I can tell you if TN did not continually stock crappie the way they do our crappie fishing would be nowhere as good as it is. I read where many states do not stock crappie. In TN they stock hundreds of thousands each year. Some lakes will get several hundred thousand a year. Of course every lake doesn’t get this each year. But this is ongoing and has been going on for many years. Yes crappie reproduce in TN waters but there are tons of crappie taken out of TN waters each year….and you can bet if we didn’t have the restocking programs it would not be near as good.

Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

[Alphahawk]

I fished Dale Hollow pretty regular for about 2 decades. I just moved from TN and in all likelihood will never fish it again. I don’t think at the present time or foreseeable future that is going to be a problem. DH does not get hit anywhere near as hard as say JPP…Old Hickory….Nickajack and Chickamauga….meaning tourney fishing or just everyday fishing. Would crappie fish it a lot with my late nephew…who guided there for years….and it was rare to run into other fisherman in the winter time. Not saying there weren’t any there but it just didn’t happen often. Used to hit the lake up in spring fishing the Smallie spawn. You would run into a few but I would be out there fishing Kemper Flats in beautiful spring weather and many days not see another soul. While I’m not a fan of tourney fishing…..I personally think all of it should be catch, photograph, and release…..I don’t think tourney fishing at Dale Hollow will cause any problems for quite a while. It’s still relatively speaking…a somewhat remote area.

Regards

[Les Young]

I was told the fish & wildife have been netting female crappie from green to take to Ky lake to try to give it a boost.

[DockShootinJack]

I have caught blacknose in Chickamauga. Lots of fishing pressure on these lakes as well