Thread: Crappie size limit

Dogwood is in the heart of Amish country and they love to fish dogwood. I have chatted with several that are upset with the new regs, but also understand what the state did to improve the crappies in it. Also you have a decent fisherman's campground at it and when people camp there a week or two with their friends or family, the pressure from continual fishing is going to hammer the fish. DNR did away with the 10 hp motor limit and went to a unlimited size motor usage but a 10 mph limit on speed in the lake which increased fishing pressure also. Heck, the State even has a fish hatchery below it, but never stock any in it. For the size of Dogwood, fishing pressure is the problem and DNR is trying the size limit out to see if it improves the crappie. I hope it works. Dogwood was always known as a better bluegill/red ear lake than a crappie lake anyhow.

holy smokes. talk about cards stacked against it. i can see why its depleted now.

i dont know why they cant get their heads around slot limits on places like that, in this sate.

I hear a lot of talk about indiana Crappie not having a long enough growing season. Aren't a lot of Illinois and ohio lakes on the same weather pattern? Lake shelbiville has had a 10" size limit for years. I'm pretty sure it helps there. It seems to me to me our dnr answer in Indiana has been to reduce numbers with walleye, striped bass and other predators. To my knowledge none of these stocked predators resulted in absolutely fabulous fishery. Weren't they supposed to control the shad population? Couldn't bigger Crappie controlls the same shad population? I know indiana has some good Crappie, but look at tournament weights in Ohio and Illinois. It's not a short growing season it's over harvest. How will increasing predator populations help with that? Maybe we need to hold our biologist accountable. The squeeky wheel gets the oil. It worked for high powered rifles and deer hunters. Who wants better Crappie fishing in Indiana? Or is everyone fine with the way things are? We have some lakes in this state that have potential to be great in my opinion. I read something online about 10" limits at salamonie and mississenawa being rejected by dnr because the said it would result in virtually no harvest if fish for two years. You can buy fish sticks for $5 a bag. That's less than most of us spend on just bait. Wouldn't it be worth releasing fish for a couple years to have a fantastic Crappie lake near you?

i havent been following this thread that much but I might add some info a Ohio dnr lady told me at a meeting, she said there are 2 roughly 6 to 800 acre lakes in sw ohio that they do studies on and compare info on, each has the same species of fish, Channels, Lmb bass, Saugeye, Crappie, Blue gills etc and both have Shad, the water quality is so much better in one of them and that lake has many more shad, that that lake will produce a 9" Crappie 2 years earlier than the lake with the lesser water quality and fewer shad which I thought was interesting and good for me. I do know once the shad get too big the Crappie cant feed on them, so when the Shad spawn is bad the Crappie suffer and dont size up as much.

We used to camp at Dogwood and hammer the panfish. I can remember taking out 500-750 bluegill and redear in less than a week fishing down there. That was between 6-8 people though and the fish were consumed at an annual July fish fry where 30 people showed up to eat.

The real problem is that A) Dogwood isn't big enough to handle the pressure and B) the state of Indiana needs to build a large reservoir. There's a TON of wide open rural areas in Southern Indiana that would work perfectly for building a large lake. They could simply start to manage Patoka better and you would probably have a first class bluegill/redear/crappie fishery.

Originally Posted by redearhoosier

They could simply start to manage Patoka better and you would probably have a first class bluegill/redear/crappie fishery.

Patoka used to be one of the best bluegill lakes around, but they can't compete with the shad. Doesn't matter how you manage it, if you have shad the bluegill suffer.

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Originally Posted by Slab Slayen

I am shure this has been discussed before. I would love to see a size limit put on crappie in Indiana. I cant believe that the dnr does so much for bass fisherman and nothing for us. I want to see a 10inch size limit on crappie............ You guys may not agree with me but the states with size limits have bigger crappie. I would almost bet that a 14 to 15 inch crappie is about as good as you can do on a public lake in Indiana. I would like to see that change. Not everybody fishing our public lakes care about the future of crappie. I do and I want to see a size limit.

I was at Dogwood Lake at Glendale the other day and found there is a size limit there of 9" now. Only caught one all day.

I too, would love to see a size limit. I carry a golden rule and measure all my shorts and if they are not ten, back they go. Used to be 11 for me when Patoka was hot and you could limit out there with no problems. The size limit at Dogwood doesn't mean anything if DNR is not there 24/7 to enforce it.