Thread: Opening a bag of worms

If there were a shortage of crappie, I may be concerned. It's my understanding that we do very little to them recreational fishing. Besides, are we just going to keep her some other time of the year when she isn't full of eggs? FTR, I fish catch and release more often than not because I simply cannot use all that I catch.

I release. One can’t control how others choose to preserve or conversely destroy the fishery for future generations but I can do my small part. JM2C’s

I release everything this time of year. I do understand that someone may come behind me and keep the fish. For me I feel it is right to let them have a chance to reproduce for the good of the fishery. That being said I have food to eat and do not need to keep that fish to eat. I do hope that because I caught that fish it may be harder to catch for a day or two. Maybe someone will see me return the bigger ones and decide to do the same. The old timers certainly believed in leaving some for seed

As as rule I hardly ever fish much this time of the year, so when I do I keep a mess and go home. The few that I keep I don’t think will hurt. Besides I have fish in the freezer from fall and winter.

I don't know....Does it really matter what time of year you take out a female? Either way, you're preventing that female from spawning this year or next year.

I have fished farm ponds for almost 70 yrs., Toledo Bend since day one. My opinion, the very worst thing you can do for a healthy fish population is to not fish it. And I mean fish it hard. Doesn't matter if it's a 3 acre pond or 181,000 acre lake.

Originally Posted by bobgill

I have fished farm ponds for almost 70 yrs., Toledo Bend since day one. My opinion, the very worst thing you can do for a healthy fish population is to not fish it. And I mean fish it hard. Doesn't matter if it's a 3 acre pond or 181,000 acre lake.

I’m in agreement with this. The impact of over population is detrimental to the health of fish.
A biologist once told me that saline / larto could never be “fished” out.
In my opinion the problem with a lot of lakes is removal of grasses that afford fish cover and spawning areas that we can’t get into.

Certainly is dependent on the lake or river system