Thread: Georgia lakes.....what can we do?

The rule in my boat is only 9 inch or better fish are kept. I still bring home alot of fish to eat and let a bunch go to grow.

Personally I think that if a 9 0r 10 inch size and lower the limit to 15 on Blackshear we could have a lake right in Middle Ga that rivals if not surpasses Talquin in a few years.

i don`t think the limit is bad it is the size and not enough of inforcement for the laws we have .

So...... after reading all the responces it seems to me the if we govern ourselves and try to pass on good fishing practices to all we meet we can ( as combined sportsman) make a differance in the future for our lakes and all who fish them.

Not all lakes are going to produce big fish all the time. When fishing Talquin I try only to keep 12 in. fish. 8 to 10 fish is plently for me that size for the day. My problem is all these old folks in my neighborhood are tail eaters and bone pickers,so every oncne in a while I go to miccusskkee and caught them a bunch of 8and 9 in. fish which I can't keep on Talquin. I believe strongly that Talquin is in a down cycle but it will return stronger than ever soon....everyone needs to have several favorite lakes, those for slabs and those for bone pickers

Traveling Man Thanks for a great post, I couldn’t agree withyou more!
Let’s play the what if game?
1. What if one person decided to release five fish this year during the spawn that were over 12 inches long?
2. What if each of those five fish laid over100,000 eggs each?
3. What if 1% of those eggs reached maturity?(5000)
4. What if that one person could get five other people to go along with him, and those five could get five more and so on.( you can do the math I didn’t get that far in school)
5. What if we all decided to keep the smaller fish and let the big Sow’s go during the spawn, summer and fall everything is fair game.
What if we all decided to be good stewards of God’s green earth?
Hey, just a though. No new laws or enforcement needs just us doing what we are suppose to do.

did not mean to ruffle any feathers, like i said just started crappie fishing. I had always saltwater fished but the saltwater poles are gone because to me this better fishing with a lot of better people, the comments i made earlier was only the way i see it but i understand i need a lot more freshwater fishing under my belt

The dynamics of lakes change as they age and have a impact on the fish populations. As the lake ages the natural structure deteriorates, standing timber rots and falls down or is washed away. Silt starts to build up in some areas and creeks become too shallow to hold good fish. Aquatic plants start to take over areas that used to produce good fishing. The introduction of non native fish, such as hybrids, stripers, blueback herring, etc. all affect the fish population and balance of a lake. As to the size of crappie, that can be affected by overpopulation and/or overfishing. I wonder if a slot limit might not help. There are so many variables that it looks like it would be near impossible to come up with a remedy that would work on all lakes. The state marine biologists have their work cut out for them. The gist of it all is............I aint got a clue. LOL

reelcrappie I see you are in BlueRidge were do you fish for crappie up there? I fish Lanier most of the time and have fished Burton{for bass] and would like to know a good mt. lake to give a try. Thanks for any info.