Food for thought on Big Crappies

[Jim Uran]

I've said what I've had to say already. I just continue to read this thread because there are some great additional points made. I just couldn't help myself on this one, because most folks don't go back and re-read the whole thread! Your tone didn't start off so well either

watch out for this guy

[PEATMOSS]

It was a nice jab leechbait, and completely above the belt.

After bumping heads with you guys here and the horn crowd before that, I have finally learned my lesson. From this day forward and here in everafter, I am for QUALITY. Doesn't matter what I'm discussing, the first thing outa my mouth is gonna be to stake out the QUALITY position. I might even drop the PEATMOSS username and switch to MR QUALITY.

Why the change you ask? Simple. QUALITY is subjective.I can define it any way I want, don't even have to give specifics. I can be for any practice I want as long as I stake out the QUALITY position first. Then when people argue against me it will be easy to dismiss them as uneducated, selfish, or anything else I wanna throw at them, because after all, they will be arguing against QUALITY, and what kind of halfwit can argue against QUALITY?

[zzz]

they neeed a slot limits on crappies . when a guy caught the state white crappie . on coon lake . that opend the flood gates. the lake has never came back. there. are no white crappies in there any more . thats to bad it was a good lake.

[Chode2235]

Has this been brought up yet, but what is the correlation between ice angling and panfish size. I know that I personally keep the majority of my fish during the ice season, and I know that ice fishing popularity has exploded over the past 10-15 years.

This seems to be the timeframe of decline for the panfish populations. Might they be related? Is the "fix" to do something about ice fishing?

The biggest thing we can do is to live and teach the value in CPR.

[BLACKJACK]

I'm going to throw out another option - how about closing the season for panfish, keep it the same as walleye, close the season at the end of Feb. and open on the fishing opener? Right now the crappies are getting slaughtered in the shallows - and we wonder why there aren't any decent sized crappies anymore??!

[whitebassman]

Or keep it catch and release only this time of year.

On my lake they are getting slaughtered by shore fisherman especially. The inlet bay happens to be right by the road and I've personally seen many people catch their limit, then go home, only to return 30 minutes later with an empty bucket ready for another limit. One used to catch 10+ inches crappies, but this year has only been about 8" lengths. Though the early spring may have allowed the larger slabs to spawn earlier than usual? Nonetheless, it is a slaughterhouse. One can only fish with a bobber as using any other cast and retrieve method, you can easily snag fish considering how thick they are stacked into the small bay.

[OnAFly]

My sentiments exactly BLACKJACK...

We've got seasons for everything else to protect the resource. Why not have one for panfish to protect them?

[Getanet]

Of all the regulations, closing the season makes the most sense to me and is one I could get on board with. But if you're gonna close it, close it completely. Making it C&R only would just be too tempting.

I'm not necessarily saying this is what should be done, I'm just saying it would be the most agreeable solution to me if the DNR decided something needs to be done.

Personally, on the lake my family's cabin is on, the crappies have gotten harder to find and are smaller when you catch them. It's about a 250 acre lake near Crosby, and I know it gets a lot of pressure by property owners all year. But it's also a lake full of small notherns, and in the past few years it's become full of small bass too. So it's hard to say what exactly the cause of the crappie decline is, but it definitely seems to be out of balance.

[TruthWalleyes]

So what do i fish for when the season is closed? I am mostly C&R, and am also concerned with the amount of fish being taken. I however, love to fish...What do i do from Feb 28th to May 15th. Catch bullheads? I fish typically 4-5 times a week.

SPring is when it is best time to close a season because of the easy ablility to catch these fish, so it seems logical to close it...But why induce a law that hurts us fishermen whom release big crappies during this time period?

[Getanet]

I guess we'd have to find a different hobby for those two months. It wouldn't be all that different from not being able to fish for other game fish during that time.

I'm certainly not saying they should make this a law. I'm just saying if the day came the DNR decided something needs to be done, this idea makes the most sense to me.

As for C&R during the spawn, I'm certainly no biologist, but adding that stress during the spawn probably isn't good for them. It wouldn't be an effort to punish anyone, it would be an effort to help the fishery.

[DTro]

Well, the added stress sure can't be much worse than the stress of a hot pan of oil.

I'd be all for a closed season for panfish with a C&R only in between.

As tempting as it might be for some to keep them, enforcment would be a cinch. Any in possesion equals a fine.

[FutbolGuru]

+1 on a closed spring spawning season for pannies. Catching spawning panfish is plain not fair... This is the only time of the year we go 'catching' and not 'fishing'.

[Bluegill1510]

+1 on a closed spring spawning season for pannies. Catching spawning panfish is plain not fair... This is the only time of the year we go 'catching' and not 'fishing'.

[TruthWalleyes]

Originally Posted By: FutbolGuru

+1 on a closed spring spawning season for pannies. Catching spawning panfish is plain not fair... This is the only time of the year we go 'catching' and not 'fishing'.

Makes the most sense to me Guru. Like I said in a previous post of mine, you can catch big panfish all year around its just learning how to pattern them out, putting in the time.

Quote:

So what do i fish for when the season is closed? I am mostly C&R, and am also concerned with the amount of fish being taken. I however, love to fish...What do i do from Feb 28th to May 15th. Catch bullheads? I fish typically 4-5 times a week.

Are you serious or kidding? I mean there are tons of fishing opportunities in that time period but its called "border waters". I mean there is Rainy River, which is mainly C&R, I see you live down south so Iowa has some great lakes to go to for late ice...Mississippi River by Red Wing, South Dakota opener on Big Stone, run up to Lake of the Woods even. Right there would keep a guy busy if you just fish the weekends alone or take a few long weekends! I know a lot of guys who fish & spear suckers, red horse, and carp for fun and to eat, they put up a good fight more than a crappie or bluegill if that is what your after. You could get into turkey hunting that takes up time in the spring or just take up another hobby? Shed hunt? volunteer? help the wife around the house? (brownie points), help a neighbor/friend/relative do some spring clean chores? (maybe you will get paid or find out a fishing spot or 2 or get invited to so-so's cabin). The possibilities are endless and I just listened a boat load of ideas for you there guy. To me its that that big of a deal if they closed the season Feb 28th every year and I love to late ice panfish, its something I could give up to help out the resource.

Your right, How silly of me to want to fish within 150 miles of my house. And, how selfish of me to want to fish on more occasions that weekends.

I return 99% of the fish i catch safely to the waters for someone else to catch. I am not filling up 5 gallon buckets of crappies like some, and i'm not even taking home limits. Whats up with the hate on C&R?

[SFC]

Does anybody know what happens to the stunted pannies,do they just go away, or do they just keep multiplying. Shouldnt we be trying to keep these fish, how do we know which is stunted and which one will continue to grow? Is it really the genes of the fish that determines their size? Iam not against smaller limits, size restrictions, closed season during the spawn, or different regs. for different lakes. Its easy for us to throw out all these ideas, but will they work? I would think the DNR should be experts on this topic and I hope they have the courage to do what needs to be done. I will continue to keep smaller pannies to eat, none for the freezer only the pan.

[Bluegill1510]

Truth that's fine that you C&R 99% of your fish, and not hating on C&R at all. It could work instead of shutting the season down and people could still go out and catch fish. Guys who want to keep fish are going to poach or take over limits regardless if its C&R, or if the limit 5 or 10 or 20, etc. I just wanted to point out that there are other opportunities to go fishing if the panfish season was to close at Feb 28th like walleye & northern does on inland waters. Everyone is different, in that its nice to fish local lakes but driving 150 miles to a lake to go fishing for the day or a week does not bother me, and is my choice.

[Skitterpop]

What I find humorous is the fact that many a fisherman thinks the shallow water inundation of crappies is spawn related. It is not. It is food related. Crappies will even be spawning AFTER the walleye/pike opener so how do you protect those then!? Also, I see sunfish spawning even in June, again, how do you protect those then!?

It boils down to people following the law. I was on a lake on Saturday that has an experimental length for crappies and I would bet many an undersized fish was illegally kept (I can't prove it though) since most of the fish I caught were just not quite big enough but other boats were somehow keeping many crappies. I kept 3 fish out of 30 I caught. Just seems fishy to me.

Keeping fish from harvest allows a lake to be overpopulated and then you have a lake full of stunted fish. That solution seems counterproductive. I persponally like the slot limits BUT fisherman need to obey the laws no matter what time of year it is. Personal responsibility has turned into "it's okay to do it as long as you don't get caught". Sigh.....

[Tom7227]

Please.

Spend some time learning about the biology of fish, the multiple factors that go into what happens in any body of way.

Just google or bing stunted panfish and learn a bit about the causes. You may see that the problem is a lack of adequate food sources and the solution has nothing to do with C&R, closed seasons, slot limits or anything else that's been mentioned. It may mean that you keep what you catch and do something to deal with the issue of too many fish for the available food.

[Kodiak]

seasons and slots on panfish.....no thanks.

dont want to sound so vain but i buy my license, i paid for and register my boat, i follow the regs. It is not the rules it is the enforcement of the rules. I seen a 16' crestliner yesterday with 7 adult fisherman in it!? catching pannies....well.... there where 40 other boats there, one would thing someone would call tip (looking back as i type this i should have myself i am going to put it in my contacts and text em next time), chances are they did but it was over 2 hours and no dnr showed. Where was the enforcement on that one? Maybe they got them at the landing but i went in before them and there was no dnr at the landing.

if you have a minimum limit on size how do you know you are not keeping a fish that has 15" potential?? there is no end to the what if's....just enforce the current regs,,maybe knock crappie down to 8 instead of 10. Going out and catching 5 crappies is a joke...how can you feed your kids/wife/yourself with five 6" crappies...good luck.

dont punish the majority for the faults of the minority, it is easier to take away rights than it is to get them back.

at the end of the day it is still a (pan)fish no pun intended.

[SFC]

Why call the TIP line, I dont understand your post. Overlimit of boats or number of people and weight in boat? I agree enforcment is not up to what is needed, I dont blame the DNR-money.

[Kodiak]

Why call the TIP line, I dont understand your post. Overlimit of boats or number of people and weight in boat? I agree enforcment is not up to what is needed, I dont blame the DNR-money.

no i was wondering why i didnt call tip on the guys that had the overlimit on the boat keeping their limit of fish...maybe i am am wrong but is it only the sherrif that can give tickets for improper boating, i thought dnr could also?

please inform. i guess i need to brush up on my tip and find out exactly what i can and cannot call it for.

[half-dutch]

One more for catch and release season on sunnies and crappies between walleye close and walleye opener. The biggest problem is the double dippers who take multiple limits exactly when the panfish are just about the most vulnerable, from late ice through spring. C&R only makes any possession a violation and becomes easier to enforce, and we need more wardens anyway. There certainly aren't enough around now to enforce the rules we already have.