Originally Posted by
Oregon slabman
This past week I was at a sports show in Washington state. I had a nice display with some mounted slabs and plenty of pictures. My booth got alot of interest as those folks are starved for crappie fishing. The story I heard over and over was that we used to have those around here and now they are gone. Several lakes were mentioned that once had great fishing for slabs. It sounded better than what I had to offer them. But every story ended the same.They are gone. Or,we catch a big one once in awhile but nothing like it used to be. I would ask what happened and the most common guesses were the introduction of walleyes,over-harvest and the volcanic ash from the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. But the bottom line is they really had no answer. It seems some of the fisheries are coming back due to very tight limits (5 fish)
So enjoy what you have. Never can tell when forces beyond our control will take it away.
Think of that as you're filleting your "couple of thousand fish a year".
One taste of the bait
is worth the pain of the hook
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