WILL KEEPING THE BIG ONES DESTROY A LAKE

[FISH AWAY]

I found out that the lake/slough that I live on is full of sunfish and was wondering what the effect would be if a guy kept the bigger sunfish over the smaller ones. The fish I have been keeping earlier this spring avraged 8 & 9 oz (not sure length) now I started catching a lot of 11 & 12oz fish (caught around 25 in about 1 hour half were in the 11&12oz range rest in the 8&9oz range). The main part of the lake is about 100 acres with a bay about 50 acres.There is a good number of smaller fish also that keep you on your toes. The lake is land locked but I have friend that would like to fish it and was wondering if I should put some kind of personal limit on it so it doesn't get fished out(greed is taking over).

------------------

[CrappieJohn]

Welcome to the site! If you are weighing these fish, you will have a pretty good idea of what the "middle of the road average" is as far as size goes. Keep those fish from the middle if you don't mind working with smaller fish while cleaning them. During the active spawning period, I'd say let them all go just to be sure that they get some genetics back in the pond.

------------------
Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

muckbootsonline.com Pro Staff
Culprit Tackle Crappie Pro Staff
Catch-n Tackle
[email protected]

[mnrstrider]

My personal take on these issue, I think people should keep pretty much what they catch, I'm not much of a believer in slot harvesting, I think the fisheries would be better off keeping some bigger ones, and some smaller ones. That just what I think, last year I started to catch some nice big sunfish in a lake I didn't know had that many nice ones, I threw them all back, but I've since caught a lot more of them, therefore In my mind it's ok to keep some of the nicer big ones, since it's a metro lake I'm way more cautious on what I keep in my personal effort the keep bigger unstunted fish in out local lakes. To another big factor in keeping fish for me, too in numbers, personally I rather see someone, keep some nicer big ones every so often, then their limit of smaller ones everyday. To me this is much more harmful then keeping some big ones.

If you catch a bunch of nice fish don't feel bad to keep some.

YMMV (your mileage may vary)

[This message has been edited by mnrstrider (edited 07-06-2004).]

[The Grebe]

I believe that if all you take out of a lake is the big fish, it hurts the gene pool that produced them in the first place.

But then, whose to say that the small ones that are kept, are not offspring of the genetically superior fish? So in that respect, it would also be a loss. Keep afew to eat, let the rest go.

[Holy Canvas]

I keep big ones. The thing is, I think people keep too many fish somtimes. I mean, how much fish do you need. If I catch 10 or 12 big gills, that is plenty for dinner for the wife and I, and they're FRESH. I work with a guy, who when the bite is on he will go out with his daughters and catch 45 crappies. Then, he'll go back, and do it again and again until the bite is done.
Last winter, I brought home 9 or 10 big slab crappies TWICE all winter. More than enough to feed 2 to 4 people. And I went fishing on the lake I live on 3-5 times a week. Maybe it's just me, but I love catch and release. I can only eat so much fish, and I get tired of cleaning them after 2 or 3 times. That's why I don't mind keeping big panfish. I hope your friend is more into catching fish, than just hording them in is freezer.

Brandon