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Crooked lake in central Florida is over 10,000 acres and is awesoem for crappie. From now until march there will be anglers on the lake 24 hours a day. Everyone catches fish most of the time. How many crappie could there possible be in a lake? There must be a million of them. I wonder if anglers are making a dent in the population. The limit is 25 per boat
A lake could get fished down but IMO I dont think it would ever get fished out. Once the bite slows it's amazing how quickly people will move to another lake to fish and forget about the other lake.I've often wondered the same thing though when I'm out nightfishing and steadily pulling in fish with just a few hooks out. ALOT of water for little ole me to be catching so many.:o Makes you wonder just HOW MANY fish could be in there at times...then the next thing you know the fish will shut off & humble ya!
Perhaps a more accurate term is "overfished" or "fished down" (over harvested). Yes, and unfortunately becoming more and more common where catch and release isn`t practiced. But COMPLETELY "fished out" is almost impossible; that said, it is ALL TOO EASY to over fish top apex predatores (bass, pike, cat, ect) resulting in panfish populations EXPLODING to a darn near unrecoverable lopsided ratio where the zillions of small stunted panfish eat up almost all predatore fry, further shifting the balance, never allowing it to recover...anyone know a pond/ lake like this?
I have seen that lowell. I would guess the smaller the body of water the easier/quicker that can happen. Pulling the top predators out of a small pond can kill it very quick. I always turn bass back. They aren't worth eating anyway.
I know of several lakes where every single crappie is 4 inches long; and there are millions of them.
Maybe do that lake some good to "get rid" of every fish you catch....sounds like it could have to many crappie and could use some fishing pressure...but just a guess.....Quote:
Originally Posted by slimecoat
In days gone by will admit have introduced single large 10+lb flatheads into "stunted waters", as well as transfering bass; this was well before the threat of VHS and other viral infections was well known. Waters with a healthy ratio of top apex predators keeps the panfishs` tendency to over populate a given body of water strongly in check. Amazing how rapidly those shovelheads restored a couple of farm ponds, forcing the `gills to either get BIG or get ate...removed the single flatheads and stocked with more bass; seemed to work. 1 cat went close to 10lb going in; 3 yrs later it was 15+lbs in a 1 1/2 acre pond. Caught it on a close to lb `gill outta the same pond...