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Thread: What's up with East Fork Lake?

  1. #21
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    Oct 2008
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    Georgetown, Ohio
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    Quote Originally Posted by INTIMIDATOR View Post
    Those of us from what is left of the CJ thread on OGF, can speak to what can happen to a lake that gets too much publicity.
    For those new to crappie.com, we were granted permission to put cover into CJ for 13 years. The original plan was to provide protection for the dwindling perch population, which was the Main Walleye forage at that time. The cover benefited the entire fishery even growing the shad base to where it is today. We had up to 50 fishermen for each drop, up to 2 drops a yr, helping with the projects....we dropped several thousand pieces of cover....and the fishery exploded.
    About the 8th yr the State had the STUPID idea to publish the GPS coordinates of the cover we dropped that year....the whole cover program was to grow the lake so it was healthy, and so it didn't suffer the "bulldozed barren bowl" reservoirs, cycle of good and bad years....it was not meant for fishermen to poach off of.
    So the State published the coordinates....soon, we had license plates in the Main Boat Ramp, from Surrounding States....lots full all the time...fishing boats everywhere...and this was just a 2500 acre lake.
    Boats sat on the cover 24/7....We had fights over the cover....we had fistfights...we had people pulling guns...we had people running off handicapped and children in special areas set up for them....we had people lining up all around the Marina day and night....trash everywhere!
    Soon, the cover was all pulled up (from people getting hung up, etc.)...fished completely out....pulled out on purpose, so others couldn't fish it...it was a nightmare.
    We never put cover back in those areas, and never gave out coordinates again.
    The reason we legally stopped 3 years ago was because the State tried to make us publish coordinates again....so we just quit the legal projects.
    Greedy fishermen can ruin a lake quickly.
    Wow! Thats crazy!

  2. #22
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    Nov 2006
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    Crappieville, USA
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    .............................................

  3. #23
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    May 2004
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    north cincinnati OH eastfork lake
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    I have decided that the problems at eastfork have nothing to do with:
    Internet pressure
    Fish kills
    Tournament mortality
    Greedy anglers
    Poachers

    I believe that is a result of silting in of spawning areas and a loss of good cover in the right spots

  4. #24
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    Mar 2010
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    That may very well be possible. But, if the spawning areas are lacking, why are the spawns so good (evidenced by the 50 billion 6'' fish)? Personally, I think there are too many fish in the lake. Years ago, I remember shad so thick you could walk across the lake. I haven't seen that it many years...granted I don't get out as much as I did. It takes a lot of baitfish to sustain the amount of fish in that lake. The hybrids alone have taken a toll on the shad population, which can't help the crappie size if their main food source is diminished.

    Look at KY lake for example. On a good day down there you'll catch 1/10th the number of fish that you would at EF...but they are all huge. More water and less competition over food allows the fish to grow bigger.

    I'd like to see them remove the size limit and let these guys keep as many of the small fish as they want. Once the lake gets back in balance put the size/creel limits back into practice. Something isn't right when you can fish off the bank and catch 40 6'' fish off the same stump. I've still seem my share of big fish come out of EF, but nothing like 10-20 years ago.
    Likes crappiemax, Tom 513 LIKED above post

  5. #25
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    May 2013
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    I would tend to agree that the problem is too many crappie. Seems like spawns are healthy. I think the bigger lakes (and river) just seem to be better for supporting large crappie. Probably something to do with abundance of bait fish. Smaller lakes (and EF is not that big compared to KY Lake) just seem to get out of balance easier. But what do I know

    I'm hoping they get bigger again at EF. And it was only a few years ago I was catching decent size crappie there. Not giants but plenty of keepers.

  6. #26
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    I always thought the size limit would help? Maybe its going the wrong way? Thoughts?

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