Thread: 10 inch at sardis?

I sent a suggestion of allowing 5 fish between 10" and 12", and 10 over 12" with a boat total of 40. This allows "tourists" to catch fish to keep while not ruining the chances of fish to reach super slab size.

Someone always mentions out-of-staters. Guess what! ALL COE lakes were constructed by the US taxpayers. Not just Mississippians. They are maintained by US taxpayers. This fact really makes these COE lakes truly public lakes. So when someone blames the out-of-state fishermen they really don't know what they are speaking of. Would anyone care to compare what they spend, as a resident, on a fishing trip to one of the big 4 to what an out-of-state angler spends? Might surprise some folks. I personally don't keep track of what I spend because it's my enjoyment and I don't mind spending it.

This is what I read today:

Best luck lately has been trolling for crappie with jigs and/or minnows. A club tournament Saturday was won with 16.29 lb (7 fish); big fish was 2.95 lb. Most teams brought in 7 fish limits and there were numerous fish over 2 lb weighed in.

Seems like they are catching good fish.

All this other commentary and opinion is the same junk spit out by all the "experts" when it seemed a 12 inch fish was hard to come by. All you anecdotal experts need to leave it to the people that are actually doing the studies. If you want to pick on trollers, why not pick on live bait folks. They probably catch more crappie than those trolling.

Even the report of the meeting seems that there are the vocal few who refuse to listen to actual data since they wouldn't let the speaker finish with the report of actual electro fishing studies.

I see people post pictures on here a few days in a row of a tailgate full of fish. I know someone this last year posted a picture with like 92 crappie in the back of a truck (some folks on here even commented about it). It looks like pictures of Bass from the 50s and 60s or deer in the early 1900s. Crappie fishermen need to take a lesson from the Bass folks. As the sport grew they knew they had to limit themselves to have a future fishery. I know Crappie are good eating, but you don't have to take the limit home every time you go. This type of fishing, especially around here, is growing leaps and bounds and will only get bigger. I am pretty sure there are more folks Crappie fishing at Sardis than Bass fishing now. Ten years ago it was 10 to 1 Bass Fishing. The most Crappie I ever took home on one trip was 11 and they were all over 14 inches. Otherwise I try to keep between 4 to 6 if my freezer doesn't have a good supply and I am lucky to fish one day a week.

So as I said in the past, it seems the MDWFP is keeping good track of situation and I will trust them to make the best decisions for the fishery, not the vocal anecdotal experts.