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Here’s the new proposal for crappie this year. Last year they were after Jordan. This year they are after other lakes wanting to do away with an 8 inch, 20 fish limit to reduce the younger crappie to increase the number of baitfish available. What’s yall opinion on this? Any experience with this in the past? I just know they need to put a 10” minimum for Harris.
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Looks like it’ll be up to us to self regulate
I think it was fine for High Rock and Tuckertown. There were a lot of smaller fish there. Badin and Tillery are a different story. Size is good, but numbers aren't near what they are farther upriver, IMO. I don't mind the size limit change, because hardly anyone would keep fish under 8" anyway, but they don't need to abolish the creel limit like they did at the HR and Tuck. Keeping creel limits is good.
I am 100 percent agreement. The 10 inch and 20 fish limit on Lake Jordan seems to have had a huge impact on the size. I fully support you guys on this. I don’t see the sense in keeping too many crappie or ones too small when folks could supplement their hunger with other plentiful species like catfish and bream.
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You forgot a couple - big perch and small perch!
TW
I’ve seen some lakes further south that have 12” (!) minimums on their crappie... and they produce some monster fish! I think increasing the size to 10” and having a maximum daily limit of 20 (or less) is good for most NC lakes. I agree about other species being easy enough to catch with the same set-up / location if you really want to fill up a cooler.
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I would be fine with Jordan having a 12” minimum. The lake has big fish in it and in two years it’d have huge fish.
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Don't hold what I am about to say as a fact because I am not fish biologist. I have to think though that if you were to set a 12 inch minimum at Jordan you would have a couple of really good years for big fish initially like say after a year or two, but that the lake may soon become overpopulated with unharvested smaller fish. The reason that most of the lakes with smaller crappie has more to do with overpopulation and stunted growth than anything. Not enough forage base. I also know that Jordan has a tremendous forage base of small threadfin shad though so maybe that would trump the stunted growth issue.Quote:
Originally Posted by Clarktg
Exactly, also the only lakes that have a 12” limit are lakes that contain white crappie which are naturally longer than a black, a 10” black is comparable to a 12” white
if you wanna help the crappie population then eradicate the white perch population then you would have a tremendous forage base, they consume a lot of the same size shad thAt crappie eat
I’d love to see more blue catfish stocked at Jordan. Between all the crappie, perch, and shad, they’d have plenty to eat and could keep some of those smaller fish in check. Just don’t know if the lake is deep enough to support them growing really large.
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On lakes with tons of small crappie shouldn't they make the limits more generous and then not enforce it? On my home lake you can literally ketch hundreds of small 4 to 7 inch crappie all year with no end in sight and few on lake fish for or keep crappie. but you can also fish specific structure and ketch big ones too. So catch is are all these stunted or just young ones that will grow up to be big? Don't know a biologist who covers this private 650 lake development but I am curious and sure others on here have similar questions.
BTW they my club stocks flat heads and channels and has a big shad population.
I’m here on Okeechobee right now. They have a 10 in and 25 per person per day limit. The crappie fishing here if fantastic. You will catch 12-13 in fish and have multiple limits on any given day. They say that a larger size limit hurts them because of the previous mentions undersized over population. Let to many crappie in and they start to deplete their own. By the way..... you guys have to try this fishery if you ever get the chance!
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I don't fish the lakes, only coastal rivers, so forgive me if I'm speaking out of school. But if there are white perch in the lakes in question I have a hard time believing that the crappie do more damage on the forage fish than the perch. But if I was to play devil's advocate, the people proposing this rule do this for a living. They aren't just pulling these ideas out of their butts. This is what they do, it's their career. For sure be skeptical, but I wouldn't dismiss their recommendation without hearing them explain all their data.
I will throw a little something else that is wonderful but also dangerous and that is livescope. Many anglers have these including myself and with any skill its hard not to find and catch crappie. I believe as time goes on limits and creels may very well be needed.I personally would like to see a 12in and 15 creel on Jordan. That's just my opinion
Here is a YouTube video with a marine biologist explaining why this is a good thing.
YouTube
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