Thread: Size limit.

Nothing wrong with that. I have never kept 50 of anything, and with crappie, nothing under 10.

Gonna have a lake full of stunted crappies. They don’t grow fast enough to wait almost four years for them to get to nine inch size limit. Meanwhile within those four years, they’ll spawn four times. Too many crappies in that lake already to add millions every year without keeping some of the smaller ones. Keep taking only the bigger ones and all you have left is a lake full of five, six, and seven inches, as they’ll keep every nine they catch. You want a trophy lake, fish Pymatuning.

Originally Posted by chaunc

Gonna have a lake full of stunted crappies. They don’t grow fast enough to wait almost four years for them to get to nine inch size limit. Meanwhile within those four years, they’ll spawn four times. Too many crappies in that lake already to add millions every year without keeping some of the smaller ones. Keep taking only the bigger ones and all you have left is a lake full of five, six, and seven inches, as they’ll keep every nine they catch. You want a trophy lake, fish Pymatuning.

Yep, Joseph Sayers Lake (Bald Eagle State Park) is a prime example of this. You can catch a boat load of crappie there but they are 99% 8" fish. You are lucky to catch a half dozen legal ones. The Bluegill there are as big or bigger than the crappie.

Shenango lake has been designated as a panfish enhancement lake for crappie. Starting January 1st 2019 all crappie have to be 9 inches with a 20 fish limit.

I sure hope it works better on Shenango than it did on some other lakes. From my experience with panfish enhancement lakes if you want to catch big crappie on Shenango you had better do it soon.

Originally Posted by sparkie51

Shenango lake has been designated as a panfish enhancement lake for crappie. Starting January 1st 2019 all crappie have to be 9 inches with a 20 fish limit.

Oh well. They just shot themselves in the foot. Twenty fish limit down from fifty? So there will be thirty more per person allowed to be left in the lake to compete for food with the ones already competing for food. Haha. Not everyone caught or kept fifty but good luck with that one. Next move is too raise the price of a yearly license to catch and keep fewer fish in northwest Pennsylvania and the Lake Erie watersheds. Wait, we already pay for trout stamps and they don’t put them in our favorite spots anymore. Hmmm.

Well, i finally joined the crappie.com community. I just wish my first post was not about a rule change like this. Needless to say this will without a doubt this will negatively affect Shenango. I just don't understand where they come up with these idea's. If the Fish Commission wanted another trophy crappie lake in western Pa the logical decision would have been lake Arthur. It has the bait, predators and is already producing trophy fish.

Welcome to the crappie.com paicenut.