Thread: Raise the length size to 11” or 12” and cut limit to 15

I talked to one of the local game and fish biologists a few years back . He tagged a bunch of fish on Dardanelle . Took him fishing and he said he felt like we were going into a down cycle cause about everything we caught was big, no small Crappie. Well, when the survey was done over 1/2 the big Crappie tags were turned in the first year . That was before livescope . I suggested lowering limits and putting a 12 '' min size limit . He told me because Black Crappie grew slower they could not do it . I asked some folks why could it not be like Bass that have lengths according to species ? Have 10'' on Black Crappie and 12'' on White Crappie . Guess they must think Crappie fishermen not as smart as Bass fishermen? I for one would like to see AGFC petitioned to lower limit to 15 with 12'' min length on Dardanelle Lake . The local fishermen got limit on Blue Mtn lowered. I figure if we could petition AGFC and get it changed Dardanelle could be a world class Crappie fishery .

Covid had a lot more folks the last couple of years. Jobs shut down and some people working less than a full schedule. That put a lot of pressure on fish that wasn't there before

Originally Posted by DockShootinJack

Covid had a lot more folks the last couple of years. Jobs shut down and some people working less than a full schedule. That put a lot of pressure on fish that wasn't there before

The same effect has happened to deer and deer hunting. I hunt Zone 12, biggest deer zone in the state with historically the highest deer counts, seen the same 6-7 deer all season since September. The pressure is real on our natural resources, but I fear the AGFC is just looking at the $$$$ and not the management of the resources .

Originally Posted by Lkconwayguru

The same effect has happened to deer and deer hunting. I hunt Zone 12, biggest deer zone in the state with historically the highest deer counts, seen the same 6-7 deer all season since September. The pressure is real on our natural resources, but I fear the AGFC is just looking at the $$$$ and not the management of the resources .

Well AGFC liberalized limits in CWD zones . Zone 11 a few years ago you had to draw a permit to get a Doe with a gun . Now you can get 3 does and 2 bucks (buttons don't count against buck limit ), go to a WMA and get a 4th Doe. They want them wiped out .I think local hunters already seeing lower numbers in parts of zone 11. Question them about pressure on fish and answer will be they want people to catch fish . If you think we need a change let your area bilogists know. The folks at Blue Mtn got the Crappie limit lowered back down to 20 from 30 state limit a few years ago.

This is exactly what I said in my article. I said that smaller lakes can be over fished to an extended that they cannot recover without some help.

Originally Posted by homboy66

This is exactly what I said in my article. I said that smaller lakes can be over fished to an extended that they cannot recover without some help.

Without reduced limits and minimum lengths some lakes will never recover from all the fishing pressure.

Crappie overpopulate rapidly.
Bigger chance that you don't see as many bigguns is the lake has more than it can support. You have to take some out. How about raising the limit to 30 but you cannot cull any? Gotta keep the first 30. Have no limit on smaller than 6 inches or so.

Originally Posted by Gomer Snerd

Crappie overpopulate rapidly.
Bigger chance that you don't see as many bigguns is the lake has more than it can support. You have to take some out. How about raising the limit to 30 but you cannot cull any? Gotta keep the first 30. Have no limit on smaller than 6 inches or so.

Not all lakes are the same . Dardanelle could be a trophy Crappie lake. Dardanelle has plenty of Threadfin Shad most years and real fast growth rates . Was told by biologists takes 2 years to grow a 10'' Crappie .
Nimrod used to be a lake where you had to some years catch 100 to keep a limit of 20 keepers . A 10'' length limit hurt things years ago and was pulled . These days pressure so bad numbers way down with 30 limit. Blue Mtn got limit lowered to 20 from 30 . Good thing cause it has been hammered.