Thread: Reelfoot 1-22-10

It's called Management Brother i here yha! We do that with deer on our land and in our farm pond's, so when the lil, folk's grow up they can catch'em a BUNCH TOO!!
Nice!

Nice story

Good job. I was wondering how you did.

Originally Posted by WestTennCrappie

Well.......

2009 was such a great year for me at Reelfoot. Alot of firsts and alot of big fish. December was especialy kind as I finaly got into the black crappie and caught some of best stringers ever! I just hope I can keep it up this year!!

Fished yesterday. Got to the lake about 9 am. Had a long boat drive to where I was going to start. Wind was pretty rough out of the NW and Reelfoot is very difficult with a NW wind. But, the weather report said it would die out and it did! I cant complain about the forecasts I have been getting this year because for the most part they have been spot on. Everyone complains about the 'weather guessers' but I have found that if I do my own research online I usualy know exactly what the weather is going to do. 80-90% of the time anyway!

I found fish in every depth i fished from 8ft to 18ft. All fish were right at 2ft off the bottom no mater the depth. The pressure rose fast and steady all day and that may have been why the fish were biting well. I caught easily 60-80 fish. The fist 40 fish were all 10 inches or less. I did not put a fish in the boat untill 1 pm. The magic depth was 15ft and 8ft. That is what held the biggest fish for whatever reason. I quit at 4pm and easily had my limit of really nice fish. All caught on jigs tipped with a minnow. All 2ft off the bottom. And again 15ft of water 13ft deep and 8 ft of water 6 ft deep held the bigger fish.

The fish pictured was 14 inches and I caught about 20 like it. Picture doesnt do him much justice but you can see his big mouth. It was a really nice fish.Caught another 10-15 fish that were 12 or 13 inches. None bigger than that. I actualy took a picture of all my fish but I did not realize I had the camera on video when i took it and instead of my beautiful picture I had 3 seconds of the floor of my boat on video............. I released all my fish when i was done. Did not want to clean any and I usualy end up giving alot of my fish away either whole or filleted. I dont need a ton of fish in my freezer so this year I will not be keeping as many. Just enough to eat and maybe one fish fry. I hope some others that notice they waste fish will do the same. Not to say my fish do not get eaten. They do. But alot of them get passed along for "favors" to friends and others and I am not doing it anymore. (notice no boats around and no wind, awsome)



On a side note. I watched some guys slaying the smaller 6-10 inch fish with me in the 12-13ft water. They kept every fish that came out of the water. Did not matter how small. This got on my nerves so I left that area. Turns out all my big fish came after that so I am glad I moved but seriously, no need to have to be able to go and boast that you caught your limit. No need to keep crappie that small. Its embarrasing! Some smaller fish are ok to keep. I prefer to eat the smaller 9-10 inch fish. And when i know I am gonna eat them i will keep 4 or 5 sometimes. But keeping every fish is rediculous. I know we have no size limit but I would be ashamed of myself to keep fish like that when there are bigger ones to be had. If Reelfoot ever adopts a length limit i hope they enforce it to the fullest extent of the law!

Hey man glad you did good, but I was not down there fishing beside you catching all the small fish.He!He!:D:D:D:D:D:D

Brad,

i was dialing your number and someone called as I was dialing and I forgot. Sorry about the day before. For some reason I never got your text untill late that night but it had a deliver time of like 6pm so i know you responded to me.

Lynn,

I was actualy having a good time catching the smaller fish and releasing them. It was good to just be on the water. But they just kept on slinging them in the cooler. I was wondering they had to be real close to a limit but they just kept on throwing them in. It was aggrivating. But I got out of there and glad I did. Was not a boat within a half mile of me. No wind. And the fish were biting good. Couldnt ask for more.

Originally Posted by WestTennCrappie

Brad,

i was dialing your number and someone called as I was dialing and I forgot. Sorry about the day before. For some reason I never got your text untill late that night but it had a deliver time of like 6pm so i know you responded to me.

Lynn,

I was actualy having a good time catching the smaller fish and releasing them. It was good to just be on the water. But they just kept on slinging them in the cooler. I was wondering they had to be real close to a limit but they just kept on throwing them in. It was aggrivating. But I got out of there and glad I did. Was not a boat within a half mile of me. No wind. And the fish were biting good. Couldnt ask for more.

I dont no how many folk's threw the years do it and what they tell me they pressure cook them and that makes the bones were you can eat them I guess kind o like canned salmon. The old timer i know say's thats how his daddey used to do it and slapped him out the boat if he would ever catch him throw anything back. I myself would wrather release them in the grease!!! But hell not that small BROTHER!!!

Ya know you can scale them and fry em whole.

Yankee,

Its all relative. There are many lakes where 8-10 fish is a good fish. We all know crappie are a very prolific fish and healthy populations can easily be sustained. But with a some good practices by anglers we can sustain the healthiest population allowable by nature. Anyway, Reelfoot has no size limit at this point for a reason. I am ok with keeping smaller fish on a marginal level for this particular lake. I just dont think people should be keeping everything. Im just opinionated.....