Thread: The need for new size limits

I'd be more in favor of dropping the 9in size limit & just making it a so many per person......its a shame to gill hook an 8 3/4in crappie and have to throw it back knowing its gonna die any how..... FISHEDOUT makes some good points.....I also agree with whom ever said leave it alone and give it time to see if our current system is gonna work........I think magazines, forums and the web do more to make people more proficient crappie fisherman than SI or structure scan does.......

Alot of good points! I understand the dead crappie floating just this weekend i saw 3 crappie at two different lakes over 13 1/2 inches each dead floating! After inspection looked to me they were all hooked deep in the throat.
Im sure the dnr is monitoring all the species and size limits on our waters. I just wanted to put this out there for discussion.

The guys filling coolers dont have $800+ electronics(beards maybe...LOL). Lower the bag limits, do away with the size limits.
I know it would stir all kinds of heck, but 10-15 crappie a day is a reasonable harvest. If your gonna have a fish fry, go a couple extra times, no sense in draining the lake in one day.
The slot limit would be the perfect senario(along with a lowered bag limit), but i consider that unlikely at best for crappie/panfish, at least in this region. All the ideas above only work with enforcement.

Alot more dead crappie this year than i remember, spawning rigors/ick have killed all that ive found.

HB

Originally Posted by fished-out

Higher size limits aren't the answer. CC has had a 9" size limit for years--and the fishing is still tough for most people. Cowan doesn't have a size limit, and there are so many crappie below 9" that it's ridiculous--but it's not the fishing pressure that causes it.

It's a complex equation that differs in each lake. Forage is primary, particularly the timing (i.e., right size forage coming on at just the right time for crappie feeding) and recruitment critical (i.e., flood control lakes can have really bad years). Cover is important, but mostly to fisherman as it concentrates the fish. For crappie, it's primarily important when they're small and subject to predation. Anyway, I don't think a higher size limit will do the trick. Habitat and environment are far more important.

I recall hearing people saying that the Crappie really looked emaciated last fall.... Just a bad year for forage I guess, that or the heat was so bad that they hunted less?

Originally Posted by AEFISHING

I did probably catch a 1000 eight inchers out of EF last year and I would assume most of those survived after they were returned. I do know i used to keep any fish that I didn't think would make it if returned before the limits were in place.

Exactly, and I would suggest that that is responsible fishing. If it's going to die anyway, you ought to be able to keep it. There are always those who would cheat, they would do additional harm to the fish after catching it to justify keeping a fish that should have been released, but if not that, they will do something else to keep fish they ought not regardless of the regulations.

Originally Posted by Hillbilly910

The guys filling coolers dont have $800+ electronics(beards maybe...LOL). Lower the bag limits, do away with the size limits.
I know it would stir all kinds of heck, but 10-15 crappie a day is a reasonable harvest. If your gonna have a fish fry, go a couple extra times, no sense in draining the lake in one day.
The slot limit would be the perfect senario(along with a lowered bag limit), but i consider that unlikely at best for crappie/panfish, at least in this region. All the ideas above only work with enforcement.

Alot more dead crappie this year than i remember, spawning rigors/ick have killed all that ive found.

HB

Enforcement is not even the answer, the real answer is to bring back personal integrity, and values... I know that's all politically incorrect, but it's morally correct and necessary for an orderly society. Policing must begin with one's self to really be effective! It has been a bad spawn year, I always thought Ick was just a tropical fish issue, thanks for that information, it's good to know cold water fish get it too.

Originally Posted by jeepguyjames

I think magazines, forums and the web do more to make people more proficient crappie fisherman than SI or structure scan does.......

Dead on! I had SSI last year and did nothing to speak of, read and read over the winter, and now I am catching some fish, should improve every year for some time I'm sure too. I have all new gear, and a lot of it high end, but what makes the difference is experience, I get that largely from others, reading their articles and posts. While my new stuff grows old I think it will be catching more as I mature as a fisherman. It's not the toys, it's the experience behind them IME!

Originally Posted by jeepguyjames

.....I also agree with whom ever said leave it alone and give it time to see if our current system is gonna work........I think magazines, forums and the web do more to make people more proficient crappie fisherman than SI or structure scan does.......

I agree with that. I think the only people who can afford all these new fangled contraptions is a bunch of old farts who don't have a life or maybe some lucky young guys with a rich wifeThumbs Up. If your bithday falls after 1980 you are the latter.Rofl
No comment James please:D