Thread: New limit on Monroe

I went to South Carolina this weekend so I didn't hurt em any. I had concerns about it as well until I asked the biologists at Crescent last year. They were the same ones that pulled down the 12" minimum on Monroe. They said to get bigger fish keep more fish. And take our slabfest last week. Not everyone caught high numbers of fish. So I dont assume every boat or person having a limit, I bet less than 10% have a limit. As long as someone is legal I ain't got no issues unless they are wasting fish with freezerburn or something.

Talquin gets hit much harder than that and still produces. They aren't the 2.5 pounders we caught 15 years ago. I would reccomend a 12 inch limit, wish Talquin had on. Though, fishing pressure is hard to hurt a species that lays 17-22,000 eggs at the time. Try something different they are still there. Ya'll do advertise too much and so does the Talquin folks. There are alot of views on our posts that aren't members or contributers to this site. We should set up password only section for member reports.

I post catching them on Monroe but never where or how. I agree too many net scouters visit here. I share tons of info by pm and slabfests. Never share my sets or how in open. Others have for me but I dont.

multiply 30 boats each day of the week for the last five weeks taking home limits everyday....that's 26,250 fish!

That sounds like my math i used for the CONTEST------I still lost!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a tough one.I feel for the people that don't fish, or don't have the opportunity to fish many times a year.I don't begrudge them their limits and I am glad for their success. I am lucky to have the time and opportunity to fish almost every weekend, so I can catch enough to eat fresh and don't have to stock the freezer with fish for the year. Normally only keep a full limit once or twice a year. Does all the pressure hurt the fishing, you bet it does, they will get spooky with all fishing pressure. Numbers of fish?? That's another question, Monroe seams to have a good recruitment of specks each year and the growth rate here in Florida is unbelievable. The numbers of available large fish is surely diminished though. So what's the answer???? Don't know, just going to go fishing and hope the biologists will keep a handle on us and keep the the good fishing in Monroe available for the future generations as well.

There is no doubt that we can hurt a fish population...this stuff is well documented. However, I do believe that lakes like Monroe and Talquin are large enough to sustain the big pressure. The lakes that are under 2000 acres, and are land-locked...now these lakes can get fished out in a hurry.
That is my two cents. I rarely keep more than 10-15 crappies per fishing trip.

Yep, I been concerned about it for years, seein all the boats out there day after day, with everybody having multiple poles, etc, etc.........
Like yesterday, I watched 12 boats and was telling myself = bout time to move along = crowds gonna start building ..............................
I am surprised that Harney hasn't gotten much pressure yet this year. I recall when I started my crappie fishin bout nine or ten years ago, on Harney,
there was bunches of boats out there, I remember counting 45 boats one day, all right there grouped together, and counted that
many on Monroe last year ................
Back then is when they went to 25 fish pr person from 50 fish pr person ..................
And Monroe had the 12" min limit...............
There's a lot of reasons = more people, more boats, more communications, etc, etc.....
On the one hand we want to help friends and family get em some, and they got their friends and families, and on the other hand we're aiding to the decimation
of the fish stocks, or are we, only the FWC knows, or do they ?
Whatcha gonna do ??????????
I don't have any answers, I've always tried to put up enough to get me through the long summer, and generally that wasn't a whole lot
cause I was working most Saturdays, etc.
This year I am doing great (retired), and thanks to generous donations, but, I have those fish targeted for slabfests, etc, etc.....
I guess, as responsible members of this forum and our area, we should abide by some self made restrictions, I'm game for that,
however, I'm also afraid that it's too late, there are just too many folks fishing these days, and any efforts we make are not
even going to make a dent in the aid needed to help the fish.
Not to single anybody out, but, I recall fishing with my grandfather up on lake Talquin years ago (1967-68) we only used one
pole each, never occurred to us to use more poles than a feller can hold on to, never heard of such a thing.
I would think that the use of so many poles at a time is probably one of the biggest culpirts in the scheme of it all.
I'm done .................................................. ..........

We put a few in our tiny rv freezer for standby, but other than that we only keep what we will eat in a meal.... 4 or 5 fish and sometimes we don't keep any.

The few people that I know of that keep the limit keep them for slabfest. But I don't know many people.

Ginny