Didn't want to hijack another thread so I will ask it here, anyone feel free to offer up an opinion.

I saw you mention in another thread the abundance of bait in High Rock. We have been discussing this & wondered why the crappie aren't growing any faster here. We can fish all day and catch plenty of fish but it is hard to get a limit of keepers, I am talking 10 & 11+, not just barely legal 8 & 9 inchers. I know a few people do catch some nicer fish & occasionally we do but not the numbers you would expect in a lake like High Rock. A few years ago, a couple of years after the big drought, we were catching 9 1/2 -10 inch fish regularly & thought in a couple of years they would be wide open. Now we are catching the same size fish plus a boatload of smaller ones.

I know there are some people on here that will say it is my lack of fish catching ability but we all know that can't be it.

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this is just my opinion, but i think HR is stunned with too many small fish.

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Well, why didn't you ask me something easy like what is the answer to the energy problem? I know that High Rock is full of crappie and bait so I think that rules out the stunted growth answer. When a lake gets stunted growth it is because all of the small fish eat up the food so that big fish do not materialize. That is sort of what happened in Lake Norman years ago. There was not enough food to go around so everything got stunted. I don't think that applies to High Rock. I really don't have a good answer. I agree that the size is not what I thought it would be by now. I predicted a couple of years ago that High Rock crappie fishing would be tremendous by now but it just has not panned out quite like I thought. There are lots of crappie but just not big ones. When I get a chance I will mention this to the local biologists and see what they say. When I find out something I will post it.

Maynard Edwards

I don't know if any of you do but I have never dumped my left over shiners in the lake when I'm done for the day I feel that ads to the small fish problem. Let the preditor fish eat the stunted fish.

I fished a lake that had nothing but stunted crappie "less than 6 in" the lake was very small and shallow. It had a very healthy bass population though.

I went back a few years ago and was surprised at the size of the fish I was catching I also experienced the same thing at another lake. It seemed to run in cycles, two years of small fish then some good years after that.

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I have a friend who has fished High Rock for years and he seems to think the crappie fishing is starting to get to where it was before the drought a few years back.

High Rock definately has an abundance of smaller fish and tons of 'em. average seems to be right around 8". I know there are tons of flathead sin High Rock and crappie is one of their mainstay foods so they are getting preyed upon a good bit. I caught many flatheads this ummer using 8" crappie for bait that I jigged up. I have no idea except maybe that the fishing pressure is so great that once a fish reaches 10" he gets caught and kept. i started keeping small stripers to eat and letting the big ones go to get bigger fish in the lakes. Maybe we should do the same with crappie. I hate to do it, but maybe keeping less slabs would be the answer. I would be interesting to find out. I fished another lake close to High Rock recently and the average fish I caught there was 10-12" or so and I don't think it gets the pressure High Rock does.

i dont fish high rock, so i dont know if you guys have a limit size or not? as for us that fish jordan lake,i have noticed along with others that fished 10 years ago that the fish on jordan are much larger and more abundant than in years past, pretty sure it has to do with size and creel limits!!! just a thought!!

I've always thought what High Rock needs is a 20 fish creel limit with 10 fish over 12'' and 10 fish under 12''

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That sounds good Nat! I bet it would work too! You sure would have to work harder for that limit though!

none of us here at jordan liked the idea a few years ago about limits on jordan, but now, wish they would have done it long ago!! you can really see the difference!!20 fish 10in per person