Thread: Oologah Lake Report 2018

I rarely venture far from Talala Creek. But the average size since spring has sent me north a lot.

Maybe it's time to impose 15 fish limit and 10" min. fish size on more lakes in Oklahoma. For what ever reason over the past 40 to 50 years the fish size and quantity have declined. The fish have no place to hide from some (not me) fishermen with there latest fishfinders. Just 15-20 years ago Oologah, Ft Gibson, Grand and Tenkiller lake were must better crappie fishing lakes.

Originally Posted by minnowtime

Maybe it's time to impose 15 fish limit and 10" min. fish size on more lakes in Oklahoma. For what ever reason over the past 40 to 50 years the fish size and quantity have declined. The fish have no place to hide from some (not me) fishermen with there latest fishfinders. Just 15-20 years ago Oologah, Ft Gibson, Grand and Tenkiller lake were must better crappie fishing lakes.

Just yesterday, there were a whole lot of 7"-8" crappie taken from the dock at Carl Blackwell. All of the fish we caught were 7"-8.5", and they all went back. !0" minimums really should be applied.

Originally Posted by minnowtime

Maybe it's time to impose 15 fish limit and 10" min. fish size on more lakes in Oklahoma. For what ever reason over the past 40 to 50 years the fish size and quantity have declined. The fish have no place to hide from some (not me) fishermen with there latest fishfinders. Just 15-20 years ago Oologah, Ft Gibson, Grand and Tenkiller lake were must better crappie fishing lakes.

I wouldn't mind seeing a 10" minimum on Oologah, but would rather see a 20 fish limit than 15. 15 bites.

We were having one of those years on Oologah a few years ago (lots of shorts) and I asked the fish biologist about it and he said we should be keeping whatever size we were catching the most of.

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If the lake has a large enough food base consistently (shad) and good habitat, and the crappie population is cyclical, it is likely due to erratic water levels during the spawn. Oologah is a prime example of this. You will have an explosion of fish with a good spawn or two and you can observe that age class getting larger in the preceding years, then dwindle out as the fish are caught out or eaten by predators. Tenkiller also comes to mind as an good example of that. Lakes that have the good food base, habitat and that don't fluctuate as drastically or are less likely to do so during spawn seem to be our consistently outstanding lakes. Eufaula (rarely gets over 5 foot high) and Kaw (Kaw doesn't usually flood bad in spring) are good examples. Tennessee WD has shown that stocking crappie helps the overall population of fish in cyclical lakes. I would like it if they did that in Oklahoma for a few lakes Like Oologah. If the lake has a poor food base then crappie can become stunted by overtaxing their food supply. I dont know how any regulation change or management plan can help that underlying cause of a poor fishery. Our Wildlife Dept is not going to change the crappie regulations for a particular lake every 3 or 4 years to match the changing age structure in our cyclical lakes. I understand that, many people are ignorant of long standing regulations, I dont think they are likely to keep up with an ever changing limit or minimum length. One reg that I would like to see them experiment with is a max size limit on Kaw and or Wister. Maybe a max of five fish over 14 inches. It would be cool to see how many truly big slabs those lakes could produce with a bit of help at the top end.

Originally Posted by Fishers

If the lake has a large enough food base consistently (shad) and good habitat, and the crappie population is cyclical, it is likely due to erratic water levels during the spawn. Oologah is a prime example of this. You will have an explosion of fish with a good spawn or two and you can observe that age class getting larger in the preceding years, then dwindle out as the fish are caught out or eaten by predators. Tenkiller also comes to mind as an good example of that. Lakes that have the good food base, habitat and that don't fluctuate as drastically or are less likely to do so during spawn seem to be our consistently outstanding lakes. Eufaula (rarely gets over 5 foot high) and Kaw (Kaw doesn't usually flood bad in spring) are good examples. Tennessee WD has shown that stocking crappie helps the overall population of fish in cyclical lakes. I would like it if they did that in Oklahoma for a few lakes Like Oologah. If the lake has a poor food base then crappie can become stunted by overtaxing their food supply. I dont know how any regulation change or management plan can help that underlying cause of a poor fishery. Our Wildlife Dept is not going to change the crappie regulations for a particular lake every 3 or 4 years to match the changing age structure in our cyclical lakes. I understand that, many people are ignorant of long standing regulations, I dont think they are likely to keep up with an ever changing limit or minimum length. One reg that I would like to see them experiment with is a max size limit on Kaw and or Wister. Maybe a max of five fish over 14 inches. It would be cool to see how many truly big slabs those lakes could produce with a bit of help at the top end.

I have heard what you said also. But I truly like how you explained it. Bravo!

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My two , coming from a person who fishes 98% of the time on a lake (Ft. Gibson) with a 10/15 limit and have done so for over 25 years. IMO changing the regulations to a 10 inch limit will not improve your catch size, I'm sure there are some that may disagree but I have yet to see any proof at all to this making a difference on my lake. Like "Fishers" stated earlier, a primary thing that will determine your catch size is the success of your previous spawns, of course food source plays into it but you got to have the fish before the food is a factor. As you all know Fort Gibson is notorious for extremely high flood water during many of it's spawning seasons, when we have a flooded spawn we will loose the majority of that years fish which does not show up for two to three years down the road when you seem to always be catching 8" to 9" fish it's because the fish that would have been 10" to 11+" fish are far and few of them existing from there spawn.

Some interesting information on crappie which you can look up states that "Crappie are able to reproduce at the age of 2 or 3 years old, and the majority of crappie only live 3 to 4 years although some do live much longer from 8 to 14 years it is a very small percentage that make it that long, in addition most fish that are caught average between 2 to five years of age. So in a nut-shell if your lake has a bad spawn regardless of the reason your going to feel it 2 to 3 years later, and if you have multiple bad spawns like we have had on Fort Gibson the problem just keeps piling up, and no regulation is going to help. In fact it can kill your lake economically speaking, I know of many people that absolutely will not waste there time going to a lake with a 10/15 limit, so with that in mind we probably have some of the least fishing pressure as any of the surrounding lakes and that still has not improved the overall fish situation. I have spoken with different people at the ODWC regarding our length and creel limit and though it has not improved anything the most often answer to justify keeping it in place is that it's ongoing research. So if you should get such a limit placed on your lake beware it will most likely be in affect for the rest of your life, your kids and your grand kids as well!

Referenced above:

https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/files/fw-crappies.pdf

Notebook: Crappie's age depends on length, weight | TribLIVE