Better sizes of crappie in Sayers Lake

It's all based on conversation and observation, but it looks like the change to the creel regulations for crappie at Foster Joseph Sayers are working in a good way. The old limit was a size limit of 9" minimum, and no restriction on numbers except as it impacted the 50-panfish per day limit. Everybody can tell you it resulted in HUGE numbers of crappies seemingly all measuring 8-1/2" to 8-3/4" in length.

It was changed a couple of years ago to a daily creel limit of 10, with no more than five being 9" or over.

The results are that it appears we're seeing a wider distribution of fish including more larger ones in the 12-15" range. It also helped that the PFBC introduced additional white crappie fingerlings the last few years as the biggest ones are typically the whites.

I rarely keep any, so to me it's a lot more fun catching the big'uns.

This seems to agree with some of the research in this area. See https://works.bepress.com/brian_dorr/34/download/