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

I have noticed over the years as some lakes explode with fish growth while others sink into a slump. Question is what do you all think can be done to better the quality of fishing in georgia lakes. I for one( and this is just me) think some lakes need to decress in kreel limits( maybe from 30 to 15 a day) and say 10" or bigger size limit. i remember when Westpoint lake was one of the best lakes in Georgia for catching Big crappie (1.5 to 2.0 lbs). Now it seems that the quality has went down and fish of this size are rare. Maybe it is the introduction of Stripebass, the lack of shad or over harvesting. what do y'all think.

There is a artical on the home page titled "what happened to the bite on my favorite lake" by Special K. This may ansewer some of your questions. Its a good read and informative.

My opinion is it mostly depends on shad populations which fluctuate up down. Oconee is slap full of shad and rarely has a big shad kill,which equals alot of and big crappie. Jackson however has big shad kills occasionally, couple years ago durring a deep freeze it seem they all where killed the whole shore line was littered with them. I think jackson has recovered as I've been seeing lots of shad and have caught and seen some other people catch some big slabs out of there already this year. I think creel limits have very little influence when you consider the population vs. The yearly harvest. Especially when for the most part there only caught in spring and fall(I know most of us on here fish year round but the majority only target crappie in the spring ) . I think what people catch and keep is a small drop in a big bucket. Lake Oconee is full of flathead cats,and durring the summer I catch alot of them,while cleaning the ones I've caught often times there belly is full of baby crappie. But even this predation seems to have little effect on the population. But im not a biologists ...I just work making hefty foam plates so what do I know!

Originally Posted by jigslinger

My opinion is it mostly depends on shad populations which fluctuate up down. Oconee is slap full of shad and rarely has a big shad kill,which equals alot of and big crappie. Jackson however has big shad kills occasionally, couple years ago durring a deep freeze it seem they all where killed the whole shore line was littered with them. I think jackson has recovered as I've been seeing lots of shad and have caught and seen some other people catch some big slabs out of there already this year. I think creel limits have very little influence when you consider the population vs. The yearly harvest. Especially when for the most part there only caught in spring and fall(I know most of us on here fish year round but the majority only target crappie in the spring ) . I think what people catch and keep is a small drop in a big bucket. Lake Oconee is full of flathead cats,and durring the summer I catch alot of them,while cleaning the ones I've caught often times there belly is full of baby crappie. But even this predation seems to have little effect on the population. But im not a biologists ...I just work making hefty foam plates so what do I know!

You might just make foam plates but I think you are right on about this.

I thinhk a lot has to do with the way people think.,a good friend of mine has taken me fishing and the legal size is 10 but we will only keep 12 or better at first it hurts a little bit but the overall sport is better and feels better the law has to change but if all your friends are in it may not help but it may catch on as a personal feeling that everyone may start following p.s. just started crappie fishing and love it that is just the way i see it

Originally Posted by airpressure

I thinhk a lot has to do with the way people think.,a good friend of mine has taken me fishing and the legal size is 10 but we will only keep 12 or better at first it hurts a little bit but the overall sport is better and feels better the law has to change but if all your friends are in it may not help but it may catch on as a personal feeling that everyone may start following p.s. just started crappie fishing and love it that is just the way i see it

You must not like eating fish.

love eating fish but if the motto is fish in boat must go home where will the 2 or better pounders be,just saying,just like deer or any other animal, feed them and let the boys breed heck of a lot better time ,just me look for size not how many

Originally Posted by airpressure

love eating fish but if the motto is fish in boat must go home where will the 2 or better pounders be,just saying,just like deer or any other animal, feed them and let the boys breed heck of a lot better time ,just me look for size not how many

Hey I agree with releasing small fish, but a 12 inch crappie avg. Weight is one pound,which is pretty big crappie. If you only keep fish 12 inchs or longer on most lakes around here your coming home empty handed or very few most of the time.

Coming from a family who fourtunately has a marine biologist working for FWC and who works on lakes in fla. I have asked her about the size limitations on fish and how to see how old they were. Here is the wisdom she gave me and i will pass this on to you guys. She explained that a 10 - 12 inch fish is approximately 8 to 10 yrs. old, many of the crappy do not last that long due to extreme weather conditions such as drought, freeezings, acid rain, and other natural happenings. She also said to determine the fish age there is a bone on the fish ear that has rings on it, every spring a new ring appears and that is how they tell the age of the fish. So putting a size limit on fish would not help the population of crappy, nor would it increase the size of fish in a lake. Can't control mother nature, so get out there and see if any of the big uns are there and catch them and remember how long they have been in the lake, and avoided being caught or lasted through all the turmoils of the lake you are fishing. This is all I have to say about size limits, and creel limits. thanks.

I think you have to judge each lake differently.Some lake's have a large number of crappie and others don't,so if you drop the kreel limit on overly populated lake's it would hurt those lake's.Some of our lake's in GA need to have the kreel limit dropped.Some lake's get alot more pressure than others.Look at oconee and the pressure it get's and I seem to talk to more and more people that say's it's not near the lake it use to be.I talked to the biologist on oconee this past spring and he said he shocked up 216 fish and only 17 of those were 1.5 PDS or better,to me that's not to good.Look at what has happened to Weiss.A lake can be over fished and we have a few that it's happening to.SC is in the process of changing limit's and size restriction's.If you have any concern's pick up the phone and call the biologist and let him know what you think.