Saturday I was fishing Grayson lake when I was approached by a person from the department of fish and wildlife who was doing a survey on what we were catching, how we felt the lake was doing, if we would support some changes, that sort of stuff.
I told him I was disappointed with the crappie in the lake as the overwhelming majority seem to be 8 inches or less. He said we have an over abundance of small fish, and people are only taking the big ones. When in reality, we should be taking a bunch of the small ones. He said a size limit would not help, but would most likely hurt the crappie in this particular lake.

That doesn’t quite make sense to me... yes Grayson has a lot of crappie in it, but does it really have so many that they are stunting each other by competing for food? It’s rare for me to catch them over 10 inches there, but I will say the majority of fish I have caught this year are fatter than the ones I’ve seen in the past 5 years on average.

So, if the biologist is correct, what would a person do with a bunch of small crappie if they were to keep them every time they go? The biologist jokingly said fertilize the garden, but I’m not going to kill fish if I can’t use them. What say you on this?


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