Thread: Trolling Too Effective (?)

Originally Posted by jigflinger

Grenada lake, MS. 4 pole limit. 12 inch minimum. 15 fish limit per angler .

That would be way more tonnage than 30 ten inchers!!

I'm in agreement with what most have said. Instead of new laws, we need to have the current ones enforced. 20 fish is just that, it doesn't matter how long it takes you to get them. I was opposed to the 8" limit, but once I saw what I had to throw back I was no longer concerned. I'm not a big fan of size limits of any kind though. I feel like you should be able to keep whatever size fish you want up to your daily creel limit. That goes for all species.

I hear talk of a potential 15 per person limit and 10" minimum possibly on the way and I'm highly against that on both accounts, but primarily for the length. I enjoy eating a 9" fish much more than a larger crappie as do a lot of folks I know.

As far as catching large numbers of fish like the family fishing off their dock, I don't see any issue as long as they are not keeping more than daily limit. When I'm catching fish I'm going to go back fishing LOL it's silly for me to think someone would stop going fishing because they are catching too many. We've had years where between my dad, uncle, and me we've kept well over a 1000 crappie. But, that's 3 families that eat fish on an almost weekly basis and we give a lot of fish to elderly folks and others that are unable to go. Not to mention hosting a few large fish fry events. None of what we catch goes to waste.

I guess it's all opinions in the end, and I feel like if everyone abides by the laws everything will be ok. The problem is with those "spawn" fishermen taking double limits and more from our waters.

I wasn't going to reply any further on this thread, but wanted to point out that rod and creel limits being mandated on a statewide basis was the DNR's way of simplifying things for themselves. Crappie populations on certain bodies of water, Santee, Wateree, and Clarkshill in particular are in fantastic shape as reports show. Laws are enacted based on a few bodies of water, Murray, Wylie, Greenwood, and Hartwell where crappie populations have declined. These lakes were allowed to be over developed, which in turn allowed home owners to remove all shoreline wood cover and vegetation. This removed all favorable spawning habitats. Of coarse, Metro areas will also receive the highest amount of fishing pressure too. My point being, we don't need statewide laws, we need laws specific for each lake, just like there are specific laws for each waterway for striper. We have state fishery biologist that can monitor fishing pressure, spawn success, fish mortality and adjust laws on a yearly basis if necessary to ensure a healthy Ecosystem.

I remember about twenty years ago or so I heard about guy's long line trolling for crappie in the summer on Kentucky Lake. Man the buzz was guy's were slammin' BIG crappie ,in the middle of summer no less. I remember thinking , well that's pretty neat. But in the end...those crappies just won't be there later for the usual methods fishing in the fall,winter,and spring.

It's all pressure on populations.... everything that increases the catch rate per hour spent fishing. It's just common sense,and rudimentary math. Along with environmental and population impact. The history of man's ability to deplete a species is long and storied. We are the bipedal species with the large brains and opposable thumbs. And we use tools....remember?

Originally Posted by doggone

I remember about twenty years ago or so I heard about guy's long line trolling for crappie in the summer on Kentucky Lake. Man the buzz was guy's were slammin' BIG crappie ,in the middle of summer no less. I remember thinking , well that's pretty neat. But in the end...those crappies just won't be there later for the usual methods fishing in the fall,winter,and spring.

It's all pressure on populations.... everything that increases the catch rate per hour spent fishing. It's just common sense,and rudimentary math. Along with environmental and population impact. The history of man's ability to deplete a species is long and storied. We are the bipedal species with the large brains and opposable thumbs. And we use tools....remember?

This is said in jest...If we are so smart, I wish we could figure out how to control the following populations: coyotes, wild pigs, white perch, and spotted bass

Remember also everyone with 8 rods out is not limiting out,
I just had 8 out, caught 4 crappie,
Nice ones but only 4

if people are so worried about the population on the crappies they need to start reporting the double dippers if they know about them, and by double dippers I mean people going out and catching the limit then take them home or where ever and going back out and catching another limit in the same day !!! there is a lot of this and people just turn their back and say nothing !!!! if I know about it I will report it in a heart beat !!!!

I troll almost exclusively, but I can assure you I have a lot of days when I don't catch many fish. It's no sure thing just because your trolling.