Thread: Ready for the spawn

I have made some fisherman weak at the knees at the ramps turning big crappie back. I just wanted pics of them. I was just having this conversation yesterday with a friend on CDC. The fish 3/4 pound to a pound and a half are the best eating fish I think. With just two in our house I don’t keep many fish anymore but I know many fish for the table and nothing wrong with that. We as crappie fisherman should always be conservatives when we can because lakes can be hit to hard and the crappie fishing can really be bad for years. Greenwood and Secession are two of the lakes that have gone through this. Every fish in the lake feed on crappie, their eggs and fingerling. I think with the 8” size limit has saved these two lakes Bigtime.


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Nobody I hope is going to say lakes can't be over fished. All I'm saying is I'm happy to let the biologists decide how they will be managed. I don't necessarily like every decision they make because they they manage for the average. With public lakes the tragedy of the commons is always going to be a problem. It's why I'm also not a big fan of direct democracy.

If I was managing a lake for crappie I would probably have a slot limit with low creel limits for fish over 11 inches. Of course that only applies to the typical lake in my area where there are lots of little fish. I'm thinking of a creel system of say 15 fish under 10 and 5 over 12. There may also need to be different regulations for black and white Crappie as well as yearly changes. The problem is people don't want to deal with anything that complicated and the enforcement people don't want to turn honest mistakes into violations.

I love to feel the THUMP. I like to see them swim away as I release them too. Especially the big females.

Personally, with it just being my wife and I, I throw a lot of fish back. If I'm catching for just us I only keep around 7-8. If I take a buddy, I'll let them take all the fish with them, but try to encourage releasing females once we catch 10-12.
As far as size of fish to release, I feel its a bit of a wash. The average crappie lives 7-8 years and it takes around 5 years for a crappie to get to 12+". In return an 8" fish is usually around 2 years old. If you toss a 12+" female back she may only have 2 years left to lay eggs and she can carry more eggs. But the 8" female could have 5-6 years left for laying.
For the regulatory side of it. I'd like to see the size bumped up to 9-10" to help with the age structure in the lakes. I would also like to see the limit drop by 5 fish for sustaining the resource. Just my