North St. Johns Fishing

Uncle Mikey graced me with his presence once again...this time, he put me in a full nelson, and took over the boat. We caught around 25, with most fish at the 10-11" range, but Uncle M caught almost all of the fish. It made me happy to see him get all the action (he needed the exercise). Uncle Mike did get the 2 biggest fish too, one was 14" and weighed in at 1lb 6oz. He did me proud and released all fish including the big girl who had a big belly.
It was a beautiful morning until the winds arrived around noon. All fish were caught in water 6 ft or less. 1/16 Pink head with john deere green was the money combo.

Attachment 116098

Nice report, nice pic, thanks for sharing. That big belly girl will go make lots more for future generations.

Thx Slab. The Anchor Man has convinced me to try and release slab females for the future. I think it makes a lot of sense...You should have seen Uncle Mike's face grimmace when we let her swim away. LOL
Actually he loves to keep fish, but was easily persuaded to let the big females go because he thought it made a lot of sense too.

Very nice tag-team, pole dancing, Lund riding, son's of guns...WOOOOO....winds been houlin' all day down my way.

Real good Luke ! ! ! ! !

Yea............how did you manage the wind?? Glad you did. Thanks for the post.

Way to go Luke, I'm proud of you fellows for letting those bigger fish live. If more would practice that you would have a better chance at catching some 3 pounders. Great report and nice pictures. Thanks for shareing.

You guys have given me an idea.....maybe starting next October in addition to the Big Fish award and Heaviest Five Fish award and the Points Race we could start the TWO POUNDER CLUB. Anyone bringing a two pounder or more during an official slabfest weigh in could sport the title....Something to shoot for since the biggest I've landed was probably 1lb 15oz :Rofl I saw some state has a three pounder club, but that might be out of reach for Florida....although....maybe Talquin or Crescent might give up one!

The wind was actually very nice from 6:45 a.m. until around 11:00 a.m. (couldn't believe it myself) Then the wind roared and scared us off the water.

I like your idea Speckanator... you always come up with the best ideas! I think 2 lb club has a nice ring to it(esp. since my recent trips to Crescent) :)
Maybe have a lower bracket too and call it Bronze Club from 1.lb 9oz - 1lb 15oz. Then the Silver Club from 2lb - 2.9oz and then for those who have caught and verified a 2lb 10oz - 3lb + call it the Gold Club.
What do ya think Speckanator Mike?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Anchor Man

Way to go Luke, I'm proud of you fellows for letting those bigger fish live. If more would practice that you would have a better chance at catching some 3 pounders. Great report and nice pictures. Thanks for shareing.

---

Not according to the 2 biologists that attended the Crescent Slabfest last year. And even the results of them aging fish was eye opening. The 14"+ fish ranged from 3 -7 years. Their words were if ya want bigger fish keep more so there is more food base.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crappielover

The wind was actually very nice from 6:45 a.m. until around 11:00 a.m. (couldn't believe it myself) Then the wind roared and scared us off the water.

I like your idea Speckanator... you always come up with the best ideas! I think 2 lb club has a nice ring to it(esp. since my recent trips to Crescent) :)
Maybe have a lower bracket too and call it Bronze Club from 1.lb 9oz - 1lb 15oz. Then the Silver Club from 2lb - 2.9oz and then for those who have caught and verified a 2lb 10oz - 3lb + call it the Gold Club.
What do ya think Speckanator Mike?

---

Did someone move Grenada to Central Florida??

Huntinslabs, The larger fish clearly have better genetics. That seems quite self-evident. The larger female slabs should be released since they are ready to reproduce. You and I would appreciate this practice so we can increase our odds each season...not just for bigger fish, but for quantity as well. I welcome your debate based on any evidence you can produce to support your argument other than word of mouth.

Word of mouth came from a State of Florida Biologist with a degree in Biology. So I am gonna gamble that he and she knew what they were talking about more so than your hunches. I am not wanting to debate with you, wish you would have attended the slabfest last year so you could have discussed and debated with them. If you remember I was in the same exact frame of mind as you until that point last year. I thought that we needed a 12" minimum on several lakes like you. But after spending about an hour in between them cutting earbones and aging fish I understood what they were saying. And these biologists were solely Crappie biologists for the State of Florida.

Well, it doesn't take much research to uncover contradictory information. I have read and can quote from other "crappie biologists" who claim that releasing the larger fish is the best practice for the best future fishing. In fact, contradictory research and understanding of this subject is noted in virtually every book, magazine and fishing show I've seen or read. AND, I can guarantee you that they(biologists) did not promote it desirable to keep slab females in the spawning phase. Come on now Mike.

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/ask-b...pie-spawn.html quick look on here posts 4 and 5 are biologists from Missouri.

Interesting...but hardly the gospel here Mike. I also thought that crappie live up to 12 years in certain states and in different lakes. So I don' t think you can apply a one size fits all hard rule here. I understand that crappie in Florida grow quite large in a short period of time....so in other words, a 9-10 inch crappie is not that old in Florida. You may want to rethink about whether you want to advocate keeping fat-bellied spawning females over the internet.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crappielover

Maybe have a lower bracket too and call it Bronze Club from 1.lb 9oz - 1lb 15oz. Then the Silver Club from 2lb - 2.9oz and then for those who have caught and verified a 2lb 10oz - 3lb + call it the Gold Club.
What do ya think Speckanator Mike?

---

good breakdown I like it!

Here is another post from Alabama...it goes a little something like this:

Many of our lakes don't produce the numbers and quality of crappie as they once did. Some years we have droughts and poor spawns and the result is poor fishing for several years. Then we have heavy rains, high water and great spawns and good fishing for a year or 2. Think about it, good spawns provide good fishing, poor spawns provide poor fishing in the following years.

The answer to good fish numbers and quality of fish is good spawns and good habitat. So why not practice catch and release when we catch females full of eggs, and they are easy to recognize with swollen bellys full of eggs. One mature female crappie may lay between 10,000 to 30,000 eggs or more. Unfortunately on 2% survive to maturity.
Every female we take during the spawn is really 100 to 300 crappie that never survive.

With current boats, electronics, fishing tackle, and cell phones - the fish don't have a chance. I would like to encourage all crappie anglers to practice catch and release for 2 weeks each year during the spawn. The other 50 weeks of the year would be fantastic and all our favorite lakes would get better. It worked for bass anglers and it will work for crappie, too. But it will only work if we all practice catch and release with females, just for 2 weeks, what a difference it would make. I promise to release all the females full of eggs I catch and keep only the males and females that have already laid their eggs, will YOU ?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crappielover

Interesting...but hardly the gospel here Mike. I also thought that crappie live up to 12 years in certain states and in different lakes. So I don' t think you can apply a one size fits all hard rule here. I understand that crappie in Florida grow quite large in a short period of time....so in other words, a 9-10 inch crappie is not that old in Florida. You may want to rethink about whether you want to advocate keeping fat-bellied spawning females over the internet.

---

I will bet money that you can not recreationally out fish Crappie on the St. Johns River System. Eat all the fat bellied females ya want it will never happen!! Find any biologist that will argue that. Find any biologist that will tell you that if you catch a hundred 14" fat bellied females on the St. Johns River System and let them go and it would make a difference.

I bet it wouldn't be hard to find someone who agrees that you are an obstinate curmudgeon. Actually, I agree with you on that. We could arrange a huge FISH OUT day and bring massive nets and we still couldn't fish out the St. John's. Agreed.
My point is not micro it should be applied to the larger picture. There are many lakes and ponds that simply cannot withstand over pressure.
Now pour yourself a cup of coffee.....and take a nice deep breath. You're killing me this morning! :) I hate typing so much.

Here's my :twocents.
You both have valed points. There are a multitude of variables involved in growth rates in a fish population. Genetics, forage available at different stages of growth. To reach slab size crappies as with most fish need an available (size,abundance,ez to get) forage. Water temp through out the year and on and on and on. Some fish will never grow to slab size no matter how old they get, bad genetics , poor water quality, lack of available forage, etc.. What happens when you have a good recruitment year (good spawn) with available zooplankton to start the fry off but have a bad thread fin or whatever forage is prevalent in your area, spawn ?You will have lots of fish with nothing to
eat and grow on.
Biologists are not always right or we would have 10 lb. Bass coming out of our ears. Just ask the degree biologist that told me that Doug Burdett's Tilapia system would work.........just look at these numbers............I wound up teaching them what works and what does not...........

Sorry......in a bad mood, lost the last of my speck fishing trees to new people I have never seen fishing my area..the last straw was when I caught my first 2 pounder in a long time and someone moved right in on me and started fishing........going to start Ba....Ba....bas....Bass fishing........

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by huntinslabs

I will bet money that you can not recreationally out fish Crappie on the St. Johns River System. Eat all the fat bellied females ya want it will never happen!! Find any biologist that will argue that. Find any biologist that will tell you that if you catch a hundred 14" fat bellied females on the St. Johns River System and let them go and it would make a difference.

---

Yep, never will happen.................but the smucks are cleaning out the specks from my trees faster then new one's can swim back in.................

Just a note.......let that last two pounder that was full of eggs go will it help anything??? Probably not......just made me feel better and I promised GOD...................


Don't need him mad at me too..................

Andy, I believe you will help the fish population by letting the 2lb er go. I for one and impressed...I didn't let the girls go at Crescent and I regret it. I still want to keep a real big one some day. But for the majority of my fishing it seems by 'paying it forward' makes me feel like I've done my little part to maintain the fisheries I'm fortunate to experience.

Hey phantom....hope this helps!!

obstinant adj. firmly or stubbornly adhering to one's purpose, opinion, etc.; not yielding to argument, persuasion, or entreaty.

curmudgeon adj. a crusty, ill-tempered, and usually old man

So, what's any of that got to do with me ?????????????????
I'm not ugly ! ! !

OK here we go. I think it is better to keep any females 2+lb'r then anything smaller then that. Reason. If you catch 30 in a day you might get 1 or 2 2lb'rs so then you are releaseing 28 back for the spawn. Remember, the bigger the fish the shorter life span in them.:twocents

This means I only get to eat specks three or four times a year ??? ..................I ain't as good as you Russ....one or two out of 30!!!!:notworthy:notworthy:notworthy

I think the little ones taste better in fish chowder :Rofl

Catch'em, weigh'em quick, quick pics, let'em go,................. good thing I don,t eat much fish.................I like hotdogs yum :ThumbsUp :Rofl

My position has long been that you can't grow big fish from small fish genetics. I won't go back and forth but big grows big. I still keep a few large ones, and I know I'm in a minority, but that's OK. It aint the first time. Curmudgeon huh? I like the sound of that. Where do I get an application.