Thread: Lake Charles-D10

Originally Posted by TimberTalker

The crappie in NEA lake Charles continue to seem stunted since the length limit was put in place several years ago. The length limit was lifted after a few years and there is with no shortage of population. There is currently no limits on crappie, length or quantity. Is there anything else that can be done to improve the average size of fish in the lake?

Tough question. Lake Charles is not in my district and I don’t really know the full story of what is going on out there (I haven’t seen the data) but I have heard about the stunted crappie population. Reducing crappie abundance is difficult. Especially if the lake has a reputation of having only small fish. It is hard to lure anglers in, even though there is no creel or length limit. It is a tough situation. My best advice is to talk to the District 3 Supervisor, Brett Timmons, 877-973-5438. He should be able to more accurately answer your question. Thanks.



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Stock lots of Flatheads would help but that usually don't happen .

Originally Posted by NIMROD

Stock lots of Flatheads would help but that usually don't happen .

They have been trying that on Lake Greenlee. We collected brood stock on Lake Conway a few years ago for their project. I haven’t heard if it is making a difference or not.


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A fish big enough to fillet out of Charles is far far and few between. I don’t expect anglers to impact the population in the current state. I just know NEA has very few options so I am hopefull there is some kind of plan for Charles along withPoinsett to be repaired and fishable again.

Nea is forgotten part of this state for our great AGFC

There are several flat heads in lake charles but the locals set out boxes and do alot of hand grabbing , sure that hasn't helped the flat head population there either.

I was over Charles for about 4 years. While I was there we did a multi-year population characteristic study looking at many aspects of that population to see if we could improve it. Unfortunately, Charles is plague with high spawning success and slow growth with lead to stunted Crappie population. There should have never been a length limit placed on that population. There is has been other unsuccessful attempts to improve that population over the years. I don't believe things will change until the crappie population is reduced significantly in order to improve growth.

Thanks Jeremy. So it sounds like we will live with an over populated lake until something changes. Is there any other solution to offset the over population other than relying on anglers reduce the population by keeping short fish? Average size is so small I highly doubt many anglers are keeping enough to make an impact even though it would take a bunch to feed an adult.