Quote Originally Posted by ATM View Post
You know, listening to that biologist last night, he never said anything about the fishing pressure hurting the fishing. He blamed it on poor spawn due to water levels. We'd probably all get along better if we stopped creating problems that don't exist.
The fishing pressure is undeniably much higher than ever, if you read the article I posted above, the numbers are there to prove it. That was from 2006 but I have no doubt that the trend has continued since then. The increased fishing pressure was the impetus for the state to implement the 12" size limits, the quote from 2006 was this:

**Keith Meals, MDWFP fisheries biologist notes, "As fishing pressure increases, the big fish will disappear without additional measures to keep some fish in the lake long enough to get that old. We're not trying to create a trophy crappie fishery, we're trying to maintain one."

That is the same biologist who spoke at the meeting last night.

I think the point of the 12" rule, or reducing the creel limit as they are now, is a mgmt tool to try to protect the resource against the fishing pressure. No doubt, the low water for the absent year class is the biggest reason for the lack of keepers last year, but in the big picture with the pressure we put on the lakes, you need either a high size limit to protect the fish, or a low creel limit, we can't have our cake and eat it too