Night fishing is on Fire

Went out tonight in a mild snow storm. We ended up catching 75 fish between the two of us in 3 and 1/2 hours. We released 5 fish over 15 inches and 8 fish over13 inches. I ended up keeping 25 to put in the freezer and my buddy kept 10 for dinner. Below are some photos I took. As you can see in the photos with the tape measure, those were under 13. Nice to keep the big ones in the water for the future! No underwater lights, just a lantern

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Nice mess of slabs. that will keep you in the shack for a while longer. thx for the pic's

WTG! Those are some nice chunky ones too. :cheers2

Very nice mess of fish, good job

Hey Rich, nice catch. I need to get out there at night again...

Wow! You guys are killin em. Great report and pics.

way to go on dem slabs

Thanks guys. I think i am more proud of our friends having a self imposed slot limit on this public lake.

I went tonight on the lake a crossed the street from us. Never had a bite, had fish come right up to the minnow and then swim away .

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Originally Posted by Crappie 1

I went tonight on the lake a crossed the street from us. Never had a bite, had fish come right up to the minnow and then swim away .

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you think maybe they were bluegill, just a thought our did you have your camera on them

I was in 30' of water and they acted like Crappie, but not sure. Didn't have the camera.

Larry, I wonder if weather had anything to do with it. The barometer? Walleye fishing died at4 pm and another person reported a tough bite too on crappie.

My heart told me to fish yesterday but my mind and body told me otherwise. Today schools are closed across the board and my little one is home. Im not braving a30 mile drive to work when we got rain yestetday, 3 inches of snow last night and rain again after midnight. Fog is so bad i cant see the mailbox and it is 80 yards away. I guess i plow snow and slush today.

Just came in from the snow blower. It's 36 here and misty rain. Thought about fishing tonight. Not sure of the weather though. Supposed to get right down cold again Wed. night on.

Quick question: Does it really matter to throw the big crappie back? I know some fish that is the case for spawning, but not the case for all types of fish. Anyone know of any online research which shows the prime spawning size for crappies? Something I've been curious about for crappies for awhile now.

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Originally Posted by wicklundrh

Thanks guys. I think i am more proud of our friends having a self imposed slot limit on this public lake.

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Most of the ones we caught the other day were females with eggs. We always put them back. Same with Gills on the beds, females always go back. But, that's just us and what we do.

LadyKiller:
I had a great response all typed up yesterday and then my computer decided to be a complete turd. I'll have to have a talk with the computer guy later... oh wait, I'm the computer guy!
We let the bigger ones go for a number of reasons. One is that they "seem" to be the female spawners and we want to ensure we have enough females in the area for spawning. I don't know if they are like deer and genetics play a key or not but, if that is the case, letting the bigger ones go would ensure that a healthy spawning population is sustained.

Secondly: we prefer to eat the smaller ones. The giants are fun to catch, but they just don't taste as good in my opinion.
Third: Volume.... How many times have you heard someone say "I remember when the fish here were huge"... or "what happened to all the fish". I guess this is the biggest reason we let these fish go. I have seen all to often that an area gets heavy publicity due to the size and volume. Due to our limit of 25 fish, it doesn't take many people catching a limit of 13 inch fish daily to whipe out a population in a lake that is less than 400 acres. How long does it take for one fish to get to 13 inches? I don't know, but imagine if only the smaller ones are left. If they are not left alone, a whipe out is in order. That is our Main concern in this particular lake.

Every year we have a slot limit that we set. This year it is under 13 inches (keeper) and over 17 inches. So far we have caught 3 over 17 and all have been returned to the water. Over the last couple of years, our slot limit in this lake (not private) has increased from 10 inches in 2011 to 13 inches in 2013. Not bad for 4 guys trying to do there part.

Lastly: I'll leave everyone with this..... I fish a pretty popular lake in Livingston county. This lake is mostly private and does NOT have a public launch of any kind. There is a small waterway that connects this lake and a state land section that the lake can be accessed. In the summer, this lake only gets local pressure, but in the winter, it is one of the most popular lakes in the area. I have a friend that lives on this lake. This year (early ice) we noticed the average blue gill size was substantially smaller than normal. So bad that we have not fished this lake in over a month (normally we fish it all the time). One particular day (when the ice first got good) we were fishing by my buddies house. The lake was loaded with people getting their first taste of ice fishing for the year. A person came over to my buddy and recognized him. He said "have you noticed the fish being alot smaller". My buddy replied "Yes".

I said, "I know why the fish are smaller.... look around. There are no less than 50 people here and all of them are trying to catch the same thing. A limit of decent sized blue gills". 50 x 25 each is 1250 per person per day. It doesn't take long for the fish to be cleaned out. On many days, there are over 100 people on this lake ice fishing..... The Man's reply was priceless...... He said:"No, that isn't the reason, we have been doing that for years"...... I looked at him and laughed...

:cheers2 good sound advice.