OPEN LETTER RE: LAKE TALQUIN CRAPPIE POPULATION

This is an open letter to the florida fish and wildlife conservation commission re: the Lake Talquin crappie population. I have fished the lake for 23 years, 10+ of those living on the lake. We live in the back of Hammock Creek, a well known spawning area on the lake for crappie.The crappie population has gone into a nosedive this year and last year. My two neighbors who have lived here longer than me agree with my observations. I should add that all three of us have done very well in our crappie fishing for years. The lake has experienced a massive influx of out of state fisherman ( primarily from Georgia) in the last 7+years, or more.. Most of these men come down here to spend a week or more in one of our 3 fishing resorts or camps. Many go out and keep many limits of 25 per person bag limits every day virtually all of this happening during the spawning season. I have only encountered a state game warden once on this lake in 23 years. No lake has an infinite amount of fish. But, i fear there are many fishermen who don't keep that in mind. The invention of live scope (forward looking sonar) has added greatly to the number of big fish being taken from the lake. Virtually all of this I describe is happening during the spawning season I believe the bag limit should have been dropped to 15 per person per day and the length limit to 12" minimum. These restrictions have appeared to work very well in Mississippi (I realize they are white crappie up there as opposed to our black crappie here). It should have been done some years ago. A drawdown of the lake level. would really skyrocket the quality of fishing here (as it has done twice in the past), however I don't hear any talk of that happening. It is true that the crappie tournaments here are boating limits of large fish. However most anglers in the tournaments are guides or professional fisherman. I do not believe their results to be representative of the rest of us and of the real population in the lake. Jim grazis. [email protected]Attachment 503685Attachment 503686

Same thing has happened here on the St John’s river. I see people keeping 8-9” crappie all the time. The parking lots are full almost every day of the week and weekends are overflowing.
i rarely see FWC on the water. 25 fish limit is way too high. I think your suggestion of 15 is more than fair and make the minimum size at least 11”

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Originally Posted by sc53

Same thing has happened here on the St John’s river. I see people keeping 8-9” crappie all the time. The parking lots are full almost every day of the week and weekends are overflowing.
i rarely see FWC on the water. 25 fish limit is way too high. I think your suggestion of 15 is more than fair and make the minimum size at least 11”

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Thanks for reading and replying. Keeping a 8-9" crappie is absurd. There's not enough meat on them to justify killing them. Really a thoughtless thing to do. And, again state enforcement is asleep at the wheel. MANAGE THE WATERS! PAY ATTENTION!!!!!!Attachment 503807

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Originally Posted by catfish45

Thanks for reading and replying. Keeping a 8-9" crappie is absurd. There's not enough meat on them to justify killing them. Really a thoughtless thing to do. And, again state enforcement is asleep at the wheel. MANAGE THE WATERS! PAY ATTENTION!!!!!!Attachment 503807

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Same thing is happening at Lake Marian at Kenansville

Sent from my SM-S918U1 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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Originally Posted by ugglyotter

Same thing is happening at Lake Marian at Kenansville

Sent from my SM-S918U1 using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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Yep, they’ve been taking them by the thousands out of Marian for decades. I remember fishing it back in the 80’s and the lake and the hotel and campsites would be full of out of state tags and boats.

I've been fishing Talquin for 25 years and agree the limit needs to be lowered. Amazing how many "GUIDES" we now have on the lake with Live Scopes and the big fish that are being taken everyday out of the lake.

I couldn't agree more. Not picking on Georgia, but greed and overfishing will wipe out a population in time, especially when technology and targeting the spawners are involved. In state or out of state- domestic or foreign- doesn't matter.

Just google 'Passenger Pidgeon' and read about the extinction of that species- a sad story.

Live Scope will kill our crappie lake.