High grading Crappie?

[NIMROD]

I sent this question to our fisheries biologists. What are your opinions on this matter?

We have dicussed small fish on Nimrod. I know it is an older lake plauged by silting in and shoreline cover losses. I'm always hearing about high grading our Deer herd by taking the best, well could it be possiable the fish starting to be high graded? In Deer 1/2 genes carried in does and they were off limits for years. But with fish we take both males and females , usually biggest and best ones. After over 70 years could this be part of the problem on Nimrod? Never had any one even approach that.

[montagc]

This is basically exactly what Tnpondmanager describes over in the bluegill section. Take out the big fish and their genes go with them. I'm not sure how much it affects a fishery, as when a fish reaches a large size it has spawned, spreading its "big-fish" genetics, many times up to that point. It may be so old that it won't spawn many more times in the future. It probably has soem effect, but there are so many variable within each fishery it is hard to pinpoint the issue.

It could also be that Nimrod is just in a funk from a poor spawn a few years back, and there is a poor class of fish this year. Could be from last years drought and die off from stress, did that affect you as bad as it did us?

[NIMROD]

Never been a shortage of fish but for years catch 100 to keep 20 is the norm here.

This is basically exactly what Tnpondmanager describes over in the bluegill section. Take out the big fish and their genes go with them. I'm not sure how much it affects a fishery, as when a fish reaches a large size it has spawned, spreading its "big-fish" genetics, many times up to that point. It may be so old that it won't spawn many more times in the future. It probably has soem effect, but there are so many variable within each fishery it is hard to pinpoint the issue.

It could also be that Nimrod is just in a funk from a poor spawn a few years back, and there is a poor class of fish this year. Could be from last years drought and die off from stress, did that affect you as bad as it did us?

[BoarBuster]

I do understand your question and its affect on deer but I do not think it has the same affect on fish since they produce so many offspring at a time. Sure some are eaten by larger fish while still fingerlings. I believe that as stated drough has some to do with it as well as available food supply. Nature will find a way to fix this.


FISH ON

[toofuss]

what about stunting from over population. take smaller ones to let the bigger ones grow and eat more.

[NIMROD]

what about stunting from over population. take smaller ones to let the bigger ones grow and eat more.

That is part of the problen IMO, as we are on a flood control lake. Nearly every spring the water level jumps 10 to 30' spreading out all over the fields and woods resulting in huge spawns.

[CrappiePappy]

Never been a shortage of fish but for years catch 100 to keep 20 is the norm here.

Sounds like you need to talk with Mr. C A Douglas Jr. : Corps, state

... cp

[NIMROD]

Sounds like you need to talk with Mr. C A Douglas Jr. : Corps, state

... cp

That is NIMROD. Fishing is on a down hill slide again. Drawdown helped for a couple years , now we need one every few years IMO.

[Cmj]

Sounds like you need to talk with Mr. C A Douglas Jr. : Corps, state

... cp

NIMROD is C.A Douglas Jr.!

[CrappiePappy]

NIMROD is C.A Douglas Jr.!

I kinda thought he might be, but wasn't sure.

In any case, I think there are more circumstances at work than gene pool removal. Crappie don't mate for life ... they spread their genes among many different partners, year after year. And, on a 3500 acre lake, it's likely that the top predators are feeding on Shad more so than young Crappie ... so, survival rates allow for overpopulation. I've experienced that very thing, on a 780 acre lake in Ky. Originally started in 2002 as a trophy Bass lake, with Black Crappie, Channel Catfish, Bluegill, and Shellcracker ... it wasn't supposed to have any other species in it. The Bass & Cats were supposed to keep the Crappie, Bluegills, & Shellcracker numbers in control ... allowing all species to grow larger, quicker. The lake, however, was not totally rid of Shad & various other sunfish species ... so the Bass & Cats primarily fed on the Shad population, rather than the stocked Crappie/gills/crackers, and so the Crappie increased in numbers rather than size. A couple of years ago, the creel limit was changed from 15/day to 30/day ... the size limit of 9" was removed ... and now people are catching Crappie >12" (whereas, before that change you were lucky to find a Crappie >8" ).

... cp