Thread: Lake Sinclair and 10" Limit

We all know that a blind man can catch crappie at Lake Sinclair but most are small to very small.

What do you guys and gals think about using Sinclair as a test case for the 10" limit???

I really like the Idea of a 10 inch limit. as a matter of fact alot of the fish i have been catching this year has been on an average of about 8 to 10 inches.
THe only problem with doing sinclair like that is that you are talking about alot of water with millions of spawning crappie. But dont get me wrong I would love to see sinclair be like it used to be.

I would love to see a 10 in. limit in the whole state!

Originally Posted by Budman

I would love to see a 10 in. limit in the whole state!

I agree it would be good on some lakes. I would love to see it on Oconee where I fish most of the time.

I'm not sure it would help on sinclair though. I think they need to have a "no limit" spring or fall for a couple years to try and reduce the population. Then implement the 10" limit. Crappie are just too easy to catch on that lake so that tells me there's an extremely high population of crappie which is probably why they are smaller on average.

my take on that is that if anyone thinks that sinclair would ever be a oconee, it will never happen. I always wondered why sinclair was not the lake oconee is and after my friend he told me it hit me. Sinclair gets the bottom water off oconee when they pull. When they back pump they bacically throw the same water back into it. Very unfertil water. If any restrictions it should be on oconee. No matter what anyone can do, sinclair will not be a trophy lake or anything like oconee. That is just my opinion. You know how opionns are though and I still have one as of this morning.

you all need the limit it will help in the long run

I have seen the good where you could troll 30 big fish a day back in the late 80s on Sinclair,a lot of the ones I caught were 2 lbs or approaching it, in some years I actually caught bigger fish in Sinclair than in Oconee. I fished both religously for at least 20 plus years till I moved south. I have heard the infertil water story and agree you can catch a boat load of small fish. It seems to be overloaded with them like YKK says, even though the lake still gets it's fair share of fishing pressure. I would say a combo of catching the stunts then a 10" limit and getting the water back to acceptable levels of fertility ( if it's a problem , I personaly haven't seen any documentation on it, I do know there are some nice bass in the lake). My Mom caught a 3 1/4 lber off my Uncles dock on Rooty Creek in the late 80s. I do think Blackshear would benefit from the 10" limit immediatly.

don't you think though if there is a over poplation of crappie in the lake that the wrong thing to do is impose a size limit that would ensure that basically hardly any fish at all would be taken out if it is over populated with crappie.

What I meant by catching the stunts out is like YKK said, impose a no limit for a period of time, then impose the 10" limit. When Lake Sinclair started going down hill everyone thought it was just a cycle like all lakes go through from time to time, except the cycle has lasted way to long to be a cycle. I also have noticed the catches of catfish are also are way up there too, they may be overpopulated as well, I don't think people fish for them like they use to..

Yes Danbo, but scientific study is the only way to know what the true problem is with lake Sinclair. Its going to be a combonation of things such as pollution, fertilization, deteriorating habitat, pressure, over/under population of specific species, creel and size limitations, just too many variables with out scientific studies to prove the reason for the decline.
This is the reason that Slabfest.org was created. With state funding at the lowest it has ever been, it will be left up to the sportsman to better these conditions and get bills passed to insure that the problems are continually dealt with. Smitty and i have seen this on many waters and are trying to do something about it right now and with all of your help we can be successful in helping to recover the fishing superiority of the past