Thread: Ohio crappie size limit?

Okay, I'm gonna probably be beating a dead horse here. Maybe some of you are against it? Anyway, does anyone know of a way to try to have a size limit put on crappie in Ohio as a whole or on a particular lake? I know some lakes have it already, like Caesars Creek, but most do not. I have fished all over the country for crappie, mostly Kentucky Lake, Barkley and other more southern lakes, and all of them have minimum size restrictions for crappie. Most are 10", or at least 9". If any of you have fished these places, you know that these limits work, as the average fish are much bigger. You rarely catch the dinks that are common in a lot of Ohio lakes. I have emailed the Ohio DNR with no responses in the past. Maybe I am alone in thinking we need one. What does everyone here think about these limits? Good? Bad? Anyone know how to push for them?

Hi.
I'm with you SpeckWick. I would love to see at least a 9" limit
for the Crappie. With a total of 30.
And as for the DNR. I've written and asked the OHIO DNR about
placing structure over at Hueston woods over the winter. I haven't
heard a peep out of them.

Rick.

Yeah Rick, I've sent emails to DNR about that for East Fork, not that it needs a lot more cover, but a honey hole or two would be nice. No response on that either. I guess the money will just keep leaving the state and going to lakes where they have limits and bigger fish. I go south every year to find big slabs. How many people come to Ohio from out of state for anything but Eerie smallies?

Originally Posted by SpeckWick

Yeah Rick, I've sent emails to DNR about that for East Fork, not that it needs a lot more cover, but a honey hole or two would be nice. No response on that either. I guess the money will just keep leaving the state and going to lakes where they have limits and bigger fish. I go south every year to find big slabs. How many people come to Ohio from out of state for anything but Eerie smallies?

I do. I fish Mosquito lake and hammer the slabs and gills and even get some decent eyes too. Most of these lakes in ohio are too small to impose a 10" size limit without stunting the population. At Ky lake and Barkley, they have those limits but those lakes are huge. They can handle it. Most of the others only have 9" limits. I have a self imposed size limit as i catch quite a few crappies and gills. It changes as the season progresses. 9 after iceout. 11 during the spawn. 10 during the summer. and 11 during the fall. I dont have a problem taking 30 to 50 keepers per day using this chart. I dont keep that many but i could easily at most lakes i fish. Impose your own size limit at your favorite lakes and leave the community holes to the guys on shore or who dont know how to find the bigger fish.

You are right chaunc, Kentucky and Barkley are huge in comparison to most Ohio lakes, but I am not looking for a 10" limit. 9" would be fine in my opinion. It works on Caesars Creek Lake, which is very similar to East Fork, which I fish a lot. Lake by lake limits would probably make sense because a one size fits all rule is not really fair (just ask the Ohio smokers). I just get frustrated when I go out and have trouble finding good fish in any numbers at all, then I get back to the dock and the local meat hunter has a bucket full of 7" and 8" fish. I am all for eating some crappie, but a lot of guys don't use common sense when harvesting them, and size and creel limits would give them a reason to be more sensable. I don't keep any crappie under 9", but rarely keep any at all anyway. Not a big fish eater.

Speck, those meat hunters will still be meat hunters, you just wont get a chance to see their buckets when they come in. I have some buddy's that will keep those 8" fish just to say they caught a limit. Most of the rest will be 10 and 11's. We have a 50 fish limit. No need to keep 20 small ones if you're catching 30 over 9"s. And these guys fish 2 to 3 times a week too. But they are legal. I've been trying to get them to self impose a 10" size limit on our home lake. Some guys have, some haven't. I'll keep talking to them until they realize what they may do to our crappie population.

I agree with you SpeckWick, I spend alot of time on EF and it gets hammered by folks just looking to fill there livewell with 7" fish. I sometimes wonder how there are anyfish left in the lake. I don't really care what size fish they want to keep but I can't see why they need to keep so many. I wish they would at least put a qty. limit on these lakes. Maybe 25.

As Chaunc said, I put a self imposed size limit on myself. Normally 9 1/2" is the smallest but if I'm having a good day I raise it to 10'', I do limit my take home to around 25 fish per trip. I also make it a point to not take fish home every trip.

I have noticed the size of the fish decrease at EF over the last few years but that may be part of a cycle that crappie go thru. However, last year i kind of switched things up and fished a few different places and I started catching some bigger fish. Don't know if I on to some overlooked waters but these are not the standard places the masses head to.

I saw your post on the 'bama board that you're going to Weiss. I will be there Feb28- Mar4, and I'll also be at Ky lake in early or mid April. After those trips down south it makes fishing here a little dissapointing 'cause you see what it can and should be. I just like fishing so I take it for what it is and try some new stuff and it usually works out okay. Also you mentioned Ceasars Creek,
since they put that size limit on I have notice an improvement on their fish
size. I don't fish there too much so maybe I'm just getting lucky.

Im with ya Speckwick, a numbers limit would be great. I love catchin a hundred crappie a day, but no one needs to keep that many in one day. Save some for the rest of us. I hope maybe we can take up a petition or something in order to get this proposed to the state of Ohio.

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in my way of thinking. Yes, if you know where to look, you can fisnd the bigger crappie on most lakes. I fish EF a ton, and can usually find the decent ones, but I also fish the tournaments on that lake. These guys that fish them really know the lake and where to get the good fish, but rarely do you see many true slabs weighed in, and with the cover and structure in EF there should be more. That lake has everything you need for big crappie from varying depths, good spawning areas, TONS of cover, and a huge amount of shad to feed on, but it just doesn't give up many big ones. I would think a size/creel limit would help this. It doesn't seem like the DNR really cares. I sent a couple emails. They took the time to tell me I wasn't allowed to sink PVC crappie beds, but haven't responded at all concerning limits. Who knows?

I certainly can understand your frustration w/ the DNR and with the a lack of response from them. I used to often call or write the DNR about 15 years ago. I finally gave up. It seems to me they have a different agenda when it comes to fishing or hunting.

It seemed to me the weren't into the quality of the fish but more concerned with the quantity. It would be better in their eyes if everyone who went fishing caught a few fish regardless of size, than if let say 40% of the folks caught some nice fish. Obviously there would still be smaller fish to catch(and release) just not as many. What gets me is why not at least "try" some quantity limits on lakes in ohio for the more popular species such as crappie. If it didn't have any effect after 3 or 4 years, they could always cancel it.

Anyone who fishes in SW Ohio can see the biggest problem with the size of our fish is do to overharvest from too much pressure. Since the state won't do anything, do what you can do yourself. I think they look at it differently.