Thread: Kaw lake archives

I'm with you Tim. We tried to combat this a few years ago. Lots of people from Kansas, as well as OK. Out of state have a possession limit. Have seen vans come pickup once a week from those freezers, and people stay for the summer that are retired. They would jug line and try to catch a limit of crappie every day. Have had discussions with both Emily (unfortunately now we have her) and Spencer. Emily told us to just stay out of the way and she would take care of it.(Not done) Spencer said yea that is a problem, that was it. I think he was busy patrolling deer lease between Arkansas arm and the other arm, to bother. So we gave up. I personally have seen hundred pounds of illegal blues and crappie cleaned up there, in a long weekend. We rarely go any more. We would do what you guys are talking about. Clean the 5-10 lb fish, take pictures, and turn the rest loose. Pull the jugs after a day or two. I have seen one group have gas jugs, 20 in a row and probably 25 rows, also a warden discussion. Looked like it was carpet bombed, where they got all those I'll never know.

I also saw three ice chests at the expo for the fish fry full of fillets being washed out. This was after the 30" rule. I'd say 80% were from fish over 18 lb, over 30". Thought that was interesting. I asked where he got all that fish and he said Kaw. See lots of stuff if you just pay attention and keep low key.

Originally Posted by TimY

Fellas it's hard to believe how many fish that are being taken out of the lake. There is more fishermen now on Kaw than ever before. It's nothing to see 1 to 300 jug lines out on any given weekend. That's why I stay off the water. All the local fishermen have noticed a drastic decline in the numbers of catfish over 25 lbs in the last 5 to 10 years. Folks are coming in with chest type freezers and filling them up before they leave. Please take what you need and release the bigger fish. A picture last's longer anyway. We take a picture and release 95 percent of our fish. There is plenty of 5 to 10 lb fish and they are easier to clean anyway.

The really bad thing about the fish hogs is that most of those fish end up for sale and not for individual family consumption. Same thing happened at Keystone with the Blues and Paddlefish. The poaching is well organized big business. A finite resource which may never recover for sportsmen or the guy that really needs to feed his family. The profits are so huge that even if the *******s are caught and prosecuted the fines are miniscule compared to the profits they make. Just another cost of doing business.

I'm kind of on the other side of this deal, mainly because I don't do much R&R blue cat fishing. For those of you who don't know the only reason the state imposed the 1 over 30" rule was because R&R guides on Texoma were targeting the giant blues very successfully and had nothing to do with what or how many fish were in the state lakes. Gill net/shocking data should support any necessary changes made to state regs, I certainly don't think a blanket reg like the one over 30" should apply to every lake in OK. Just my thoughts if you want a larger population of big fish why not put a slot on it, and as far as declining #s? I haven't caught another 65 lbr in a couple years but seem to not have much of a problem catching several between 25 and 45, Its funny how a once considered trash fish is now on a lot of peoples trophy fish list and don't get me wrong, Im glad there are more people using our resources and people out fishing.. Those big blue put a dent in the crappie population as well. For those of you who think the big ones don't taste as good, Your not cleaning or preparing it correctly. Im just curious how many people release 3 LB crappie in Grenada, My guess is a lot more hit the grease than the release.

Sorry Darryl gonna have to disagree. I know some of the best catfishermen in the country that fish this lake 4 to 5 days a week for years and have watched a steady decrease in big blues. They are taking thousands of pounds out every week and Kaw is not that big. I understand you are more concerned about the crappie but all the fish is a resource we need to protect. As with the shocking program, I was out there 2 weeks ago when the state shocked for catfish and they did not turn hardly any big blues. The 30 inch regulation was put on the lakes because of this decline. Only the honest fishermen are abiding by this law anyway. Just don't understand why they have to keep the bigger fish when there is a ton of 5 to 10 pounders unless they just want to show them off.

My info on the reason for the change was from the now retired head of OK Dept of wildlife fisheries biologist, Doubt he would lie to me. I am not arguing that there are tons of fish being take out or that the resource shouldn't be protected, What I am saying is let the #s speak for themselves, which by now I'm sure are skewed to match there fear, How does one go about saying how many trophy fish should be in reservoir. With shad kills and Flood control actions can you really be sure its the fisherman. compare the crappie population to what it was 2years ago, I guarantee you its not even close to what it was then, we know they went downstream.. I personally feel the estimated # of blues in our Lakes is larger than most would think, but with our current shad base its not an issue. I know several of us supply friends and family's with a bag of fish now and again, and have several large fish fries a year. I usually jug fish 4 t 5 times a year for a few days in a row at the most. I do see the fellas with the freezers your talking about, and like you said stay for months at a time. The resources required to catch some of these guys with cleaned fish would be huge. Even to have a warden camp out at the boat ramp on a weekend, Possibly some help would be better than none, that was mentioned earlier.

Gotta give the Game Rangers a little break. Very difficult to patrol a county with 1 to 2 people. They've got to have help from all of us. They have a big load this weekend with dove season opening and labor day. They will be out there this weekend.

So where's the crappie biting?

Found what I'm sure is crappie along a drop off going into a cove. Threw a shad net this morning and had some decent crappie in it along with shad. If you catch them in a throw net they are pretty thick. Gonna spider rig the cove tomorrow. Fish looked like they were 6 to 10 ft deep.