How many is too many kept?

[Cane Pole]

Billbob is honest Abe.

[Stickmarsh]

The simple answer is to never keep more than you intend to eat. Other times (when you don't need them), toss them all back. Why kill them just to show them off???

[Cane Pole]

Ima gonna stuff my stockings.

[westsloper]

Panfish are prolific breeders! The lakes I fish are notorious for getting over populated easily. I have made it a habit to keep any "eater" size fish I catch, I let the bigger trophy size fish go. Perch for instance, anything over 12" I put back. I know I'm going to catch a ton of 8-11" fish that are perfect eating size. The same goes for crappie, I keep the 8-12" fish any thing bigger or smaller I put back. Jm2c

[NIMROD]

That depends where you fish, many lakes in Arkansas are overpopulated with Crappie. The AGFC just approved raising the limit on most lakes here in the north-west part from 20 to 30.

[Saltine]

We can't keep any crappie under 9" here. I could catch a limit if it wasn't for that fact. 11-12" seem to be "BIG" around here. I occasionally come home with a couple slabs in the 12" range, but it is rare for me. I will say I have caught bigger crappie farther south in the state, and out of the Ohio River. I feel like I should be throwing anything 12" or bigger back to help the population size, but I like to eat em!

[CrappiePappy]

We can't keep any crappie under 9" here. I could catch a limit if it wasn't for that fact. 11-12" seem to be "BIG" around here. I occasionally come home with a couple slabs in the 12" range, but it is rare for me. I will say I have caught bigger crappie farther south in the state, and out of the Ohio River. I feel like I should be throwing anything 12" or bigger back to help the population size, but I like to eat em!

That's the irony of the whole question of C&R ....

Do you keep the smaller ones & let the bigger ones go (to make even MORE little ones)

OR

Do you keep the bigger ones & thus leave more baitfish for the smaller ones to eat & get bigger



... cp

[Spoonminnow]

Do you keep the bigger ones & thus leave more baitfish for the smaller ones to eat & get bigger

That kind of depends on the predator population and food chain. Larger fish eat smaller fish or whatever they can swallow. My local lake has pickerel, bass, large white perch and some large crappie and sunfish. Do larger predator fish prefer larger prey? If so, a larger bigger predator population can be just as detrimental to older panfish in numbers destroyed as anglers.

I fear that's the problem with the stunted gills and crappie at another lake - too many large fish devouring too many +3 y.o. panfish. Smaller fish will always be targeted by slightly larger predator fish, which includes crappie, and there will always be a larger number of young fish in a body of water closer to the year they were hatched.

But one thing is for certain: some type of survey is necessary for any body of water that may need regulating. Slot and size limits can't be applied to crappie as they are to bass because smaller crappie are of no use to meat anglers. Once a special regulation is put into effect, it would need another survey years down the road to make sure it is still needed. Very few states have the resources to do surveys on thousands of lakes and general regulations can be the least effective means (or do worse) at protecting fish.

A perfect example in NY: two anglers can keep 50 crappie per day in a body of water fished five days a week which results in 250 crappie taken in five days. Multiply 125 fish per angler by 15 anglers x five days and that equals 1875 fish over 9" (no one keeps smaller fish). Remember, that number is for only 5 days, not one week!

Depending on lake acreage and cover and spawn success, that can mean the decimation of an older fish population in just a few years in smaller waters. One lake I fish had most weed cover striped by an overpopulation of hybrid carp introduced by home owners. Now there are far less decent size crappie than ever before and stunted fish are the norm; and this doesn't even take into account the overpopulation of prolific white perch which can be very bad for other fish species.

[deathb4disco]

That's the irony of the whole question of C&R ....

Do you keep the smaller ones & let the bigger ones go (to make even MORE little ones)

OR

Do you keep the bigger ones & thus leave more baitfish for the smaller ones to eat & get bigger



... cp

How about a slot limit like with redfish? Throw back the big and small and keep the "in-betweeners".

[CrappiePappy]

How about a slot limit like with redfish? Throw back the big and small and keep the "in-betweeners".

I think that's what a lot of our members are doing, but in a self-imposed manner. State imposed slot limits haven't always worked, either.

The "irony" of the situation is also dictated by the ability of the particular body of water to produce fish of size, in numbers that can satisfy the angler population ... when we all know that once a body of water gets that "Slabs in numbers" reputation, it's going to get even greater angling pressure. And seeing as how many of the better Slab producing waters are not managed simply for Crappie, and the cyclic nature of the fish vs weather/water condition issues, it's a situation that is mostly out of mans control ... and the best we can do is occasionally tweak the limits (size/numbers) to satisfy the greater percentage of the angling population. IMHO

... cp