3.1 lb Crappie from Lake Earling

[Rod & Reel]

When I go "HOG HUNTING", I mean it. I look for quality in a fish and not quantity. She was a big ole sow and I didn't even think I had a Crappie. She was 17 3/4 in. and weighed 3.1 lbs. Right after I caught her, I brought her straight home in my livewell and released her under my boathouse. Now I know Cypress has a 3.1 lb Crappie in it. Arkansas Lakes grow "HOGS" and there is a reason why. Later R & R :D

[fishingpox]

Yup, that is a HAWG. Looks as though you could put a tennis ball in her mouth.

[MTM]

Boy R&R that is sure a dandy. What did you catch her on? Ron

[Rod & Reel]

Boy R&R that is sure a dandy. What did you catch her on? Ron

On the #1 most popular jig combination (as voted on in many a survey on this site). Black/ Chartreuse 2" tube jig on a 1/8 oz head fished on the botton. My theory in "HOG HUNTING", the bigger the jig, the bigger the fish.
Later R & R

[Jerry Blake]

That is a DANDY!!!!!

[Rod & Reel]

That is a DANDY!!!!!

Hey Jerry, if Louisiana would reduce their fish limits to what Arkansas limits are, I believe you would see more of this quality of fish. What do you think and how do you feel about the lower limits in your state. You can catch 50 Crappie a day in Louisiana. Later R & R

[Jerry Blake]

Hey R&R:

I'm not sure how reducing creel limits would affect a fishery. It would likely depend on a lot of factors. I think the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission does a good job of monitoring the size and numbers of all the fish species in our lakes and stocking a good balance of certain species when needed. Simply reducing creel limits on crappie may cause overpopulation, which could cause stunting due to lack of food supply and adequate habitat.

If there is a lot of fishing pressure and everyone is catching a lot of small crappie then it would seem the populations may be too high compared to the available forage and habitat. For some of the crappie to reach “trophy” size it seems like it would be better to remove more of the smaller fish that are competing for food and habitat.

I’m not sure why but we're seeing a lot of big crappie lately. We’ve had more 2+ pound crappie in the last few months than in the previous 3 or 4 years. I think the main reason for this is exceptional shad spawns the last two springs, which is probably due to stable weather and lake levels, which also helped the crappie because they hardly lost any weight during the spawn last year.

In years past I’ve seen them loose as much as 1/3rd of their body weight on average while spawning when the shad populations were down, the weather was unstable (lots of rain and temperature extremes) and lake levels were up and down during the crappie spawn.

Another factor may be the mild winters and summers we’ve had the last couple years. During extremely hot summers when our surface temps get into the low 90s and cold winters when the surface temps get into the low 40s the crappie seem to get very lethargic and don’t appear to be eating much. We haven’t had those extremes the last few years and it appears that the “growing season” has been longer and the “dormant” season has been shorter.

We’re not catching the numbers of crappie that we have in the past and I think that may be because they have plenty to eat and also the populations may be down somewhat do to unstable weather during the spawns three to six years ago. With plenty of forage and less competition they are just sitting around their condos getting fat and lazy.

I think we still have good numbers of crappie as we’re seeing them stacked up on many of our condos but we have to move after catching one or two on most of them. In years past it wasn’t unusual to catch 15, 20 or more on one condo but they weren’t near as fat as they are now. I really think we are going to see some 3+ pounders in the next couple months. We’ve had a lot of 17-inch crappie in the past that were under 2-pounds. When we catch a 17-incher that is as fat as the 16-inch/2-pound, 4-ounce crappie we had yesterday it will be over 3-pounds I’m sure.

Anyway the point I am trying to make in my rambling is that I think weather patterns, water conditions and such may have more affect on crappie populations and size than angling pressure.

[horseshoer]

Very nice fish and sounds about right, 2 biggest I caught lately were 16-1/2
and 17" and went 2 lb 10 oz and 2 lb 13 oz last spring. Go get another and give that one some company. lol
Jeff

[crap-king]

big hawg

[Bingo]

Grea888t Fish.