How do you get past the dinks?

[1morecast]

I've fished many lakes / ponds that are brimming w/ scrawny dinks. I know there are some hefty slabs mixed in, but I'd like to up my ratio; sometimes it's 100-to-1 or even worse. Also, with no length limit in place, will it make any difference to keep limits of those small ones? There's so many it's hard to believe taking 30 of those puny crappie every day would make even a negligible difference! LOL Any ideas?

[gabowman]

Big baits might help to keep the little guys off. Or try a different spot to get away from the dinks. Worth a try.

[jcd]

You could try to find deeper water...Maybe deeper water close to where you was catching the dinks...

Jeremy

[baitman]

For me sometimes I need to get my jig down faster, past the dinks. Bit sometimes you will need to just move and try anther spot. If you get your jig down to the bottom and are still catching dinks move to another spot. When I shoot docks and the first few fish are small I move to another spot. Most of the time by best fish will come with the first few fish then the size will start getting smaller. When fishing brush or trolling I seem to catch my better fish closer to or in the brush.

[wannabe fisherman]

had a game warden tell me once to just throw them over my shoulder, they were over crowed and needed to be thinned out. bank fishing at the time.

[Little Skeeter]

had a game warden tell me once to just throw them over my shoulder, they were over crowed and needed to be thinned out. bank fishing at the time.

Ummm I am pretty sure he was kidding. If not then, umm yea Might want to just let them back into the lake.

But yea I have delt with this issue a more than a few times. Bigger bait, deeper, new location, and also a different type of bait will sometimes help.

[logs]

Fish a little deeper the smaller fish seem to feed closer to the top. Good luck.

[jigflinger]

The dinks need to be thinned out. The CO may have more serious than you may think. If not, then dinks is all you will ever have. Even the dinks will spawn when they are old enough. And they have to have food also. More dinks, less food, fewer slabs. I know it's a difficult decision, but a necessary one. Find someone local that will take all the dinks you catch. That way you help someone, and the body of water you fish. That's a win-win.

[mikem2424]

If your night fishing move your light closer to the boat or pole further from the boat seems the bigger ones wont come as close to the light as the dink will in my experience.

[chucktx]

The dinks need to be thinned out. The CO may have more serious than you may think. If not, then dinks is all you will ever have. Even the dinks will spawn when they are old enough. And they have to have food also. More dinks, less food, fewer slabs. I know it's a difficult decision, but a necessary one. Find someone local that will take all the dinks you catch. That way you help someone, and the body of water you fish. That's a win-win.

agree.......fry the dinks or give to someone that will use them..........