Meeting summary:

Had 69 attendees (more than double what they were expecting)

Held by Ron Garavelli, Chief of Fisheries

An attempted presentation was given by Keith Mills, Chief Biologist, giving the current status of the crappie population based on shock and netting observations by his department. Unfortunately he was interrupted about half way thru by all of the bellyachers concerning their short fish catch rate this past Spring and Summer and was never allowed to finish giving his report.

The 10” recommendation for Sardis is an attempt to take some of the pressure off the 2009 class of fish and spread the take over a couple of years. The 2010 class was weak but the 2011 class was eaten by the predator fish or flushed down the spillway. The combination of two years of a bad/weak spawns is what has prompted the rule change suggestion. It’s not an economic/tax rate concern for the local businesses at all. In fact, their well being was never mentioned. Not once. Please note this is NOT a done deal yet. They are trying to allow anglers to come down and enjoy the lakes and put some crappie in the freezer but preparing for a couple of weak years we have headed our way.
The rule curve hasn’t been changed since 1988 when it was raised 5 feet. They are currently working with two universities trying to get this adjusted allowing more water to be held for better spawning conditions.

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks is a completely different animal than the Corps of Engineers. The Corps is charged with the responsibility protecting the lives of those who live downstream and the MSDWF is responsible for growing the fish population in the water they have left.

Overall the audience hated trollers and MO fisherman. Crappie.com was also criticized by name because it provides better communication and puts more pressure on the resource almost instantly.

One person asked if the other three lakes were in as bad of shape as Sardis and the answer was “Yes Sir, things are so bad here that we have anglers from 24 states coming here to fish our lakes.” LOL

The idea of establishing a slot limit was mentioned but not considered because the growth rate of a crappie is so fast that establishing a 2” slot would only protect one year class of fish and they have had two bad spawns in a row. They also thought it would be difficult to ask someone that has driven several hundred miles to catch a trophy fish to throw back his 16” fish.

The notion of reducing the number of poles and establishing a trolling season seemed to get some traction so if you have a better idea then you need to write the Executive Director in the next two weeks. The vote meeting will be held in the middle of February and if the recommendation passes it will go into effect March 16th. The single polers were represented loud and proud last night so if you have a better idea then you need to get to writing asap.