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Thread: How many is too many kept?

  1. #1
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    Default How many is too many kept?


    With bass, I understand the reasons for restricted daily limits and personal decisions to catch and release. But what about crappie? I see pictures of large bags of crappie taken often on this site and wonder if c&r should apply to most lakes even where crappie are abundant.

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    It probably depends on the lake, fish population, and other circumstances. I have a lake place where the panfish population, including crappies, consists of nothing but small fish. There are too many fish competing for food and space and so all of the fish are small.

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    To many fish equal little ones.

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    Most people don't get limits every time. The people that can don't keep a lot because they can get them any time. I fish 2or3 times a week and I keep fish for myself 2 times a year but I have a lot of friends that I give fish to and I C. and release Most of the time.Saturday we caught 35 all were released . Most of the picture you see are the better days people have not the every day.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spoonminnow View Post
    With bass, I understand the reasons for restricted daily limits and personal decisions to catch and release. But what about crappie? I see pictures of large bags of crappie taken often on this site and wonder if c&r should apply to most lakes even where crappie are abundant.
    Most states have limits in place to deal with the capacity of the waters to produce vs the mortality rate (natural & angler driven). Even the C&R policy of the "Bass guys" has come under fire & scrutiny as the best management technique for more & larger Bass.

    Many people say release the big ones (Crappie) because they have the genes that produce big Crappie. I disagree with that assumption, based on the fact that the previous generations of offspring would have the same gene pool component ... but, just be a year younger than the latest generation (& subsequently be smaller). Female Crappie don't pick an alpha male of their species ... they distribute their eggs among several different males. The Crappie that get big, don't do so simply from their genetics ... they are just the lucky ones that don't get eaten by predators, and/or happen to inhabit waters that can sustain them or facilitate rapid growth.

    IMHO ... size limits ARE a form of C&R, allowing anglers to take fish "above" a certain size, while releasing those that don't (yet) qualify as being of a harvestable size. Those size limits (& the creel limits that often accompany them) are set in accordance with the capacity of those specific waters they're intended for, by the Fish/Wildlife biologists, so as to maximize the anglers harvest ... while keeping the upcoming generations safe, so they too can reach harvestable size.
    It's also my belief that ... should C&R be mandated for Crappie, eventually the waters containing them would be over populated, resulting in old but small fish (stunted growth). That would probably result in lower numbers of anglers pursuing Crappie, which would result in lower harvest rates ... and, well you see where that's going

    Just my ... FWIW

    ... cp

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    Lets spin this around a bit. There is 33000+ members on this forum. If everyone was catching limits there would not be a big enough server made to hold all the tailgate pics. Sure there are a bunch that can consistsntly catch limits, but not many can say they can limit out every day no matter the conditions. And that is just this forum where we are all ate up with the Crappie desease. So in reality even though there seems to be a bunch kept it will no where near keep up with them prolific breeders in a large body of water, and quite possibly even a small body of water. If your really curious go to a local ramp during a peak season and take a survey and see how many really do limit out.

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    And some of us have NEVER caught a limit (yet)!
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    I dont like to clean more than 10 at one time, I only keep fish in the winter time mostly, we caught 90+ tuesday, I went today by my self caught 40, all were released, I hadn't cleaned a crappie since march.

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    Didnt I read that Crappie have 20,000 plus offspring each Spring? in My local lake it has been estimated that it takes a Crappie 6yrs to reach the 9"+ limit that the lake has. The DNR keeps a close eye on populations and sizes thankfully.

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    Those size limits (& the creel limits that often accompany them) are set in accordance with the capacity of those specific waters they're intended for, by the Fish/Wildlife biologists,
    DNR keeps a close eye on populations
    Unfortunately there are blanket rules that cover all waters in NYS. At one time I asked the head DEC office (in writing) how they arrived at the 25 crappie, 10" size limit. The response was vague and non-scientific or, in other words, not supported by shock surveys or angler surveys across the state.
    My local private lake has thousands of stunted crappie and no survey has been done there. Very few anglers catch or keep crappie in that lake, so for the life of me I can't see the state limit being of any value. And there are many lakes and ponds like it.

    Oh, I almost forgot. The text letter sent from the head office stated that groups of Asian anglers upstate had at one time a commercial enterprise, selling caught crappie to restaurants. Funny though but I've never seen an Asian fishing for crappie in my 60 years of life!

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