Your Opinion on a Crappie min. size

[Jmnhunter]

I was thinking, and if MN made a state wide minimum length for crapps,such as 9or10" there would be some nicer fish out there, yes there are alot of people that like to keep smaller ones yet, but it would make crappies nicer in some of the lakes being overfished in the metro area especially. My opinion is that we should establish a min. size on them statewide, at teh minimum, a min. size set in the metro area. what do u think?...

-good luck

jn

[BarryG]

Here in MO they have length limits on crappie in certain lakes. They also have numbers limits too. In most lakes in Mo the limit is 15 and on some lakes they have a 10" size limit also. In the rivers the limit is 30 without a size limit. They have to do it on a lake by lake limit because some lakes just produce more and/or bigger crappie than other lakes. Crappie are a short lived fish... they will usually die after 4 yrs. That is down here where we have a little longer growing season than you do in MN.

[Captain B.R.K]

That would be a tough call here in MN. A lot of the lakes here are not managed for panfish. If there are some, they aren't coming to mind.

[gonefishin11]

North Lida has an 11" crappie slot and it seems to work well. I have caught some vert nice crappies out of there. I personally think 10" would be a good slot statewide.

[Delorea]

Do most people even keep crappies below 10". I know of a few small lakes that have numerous 8-9 inch crappie but few over 9. They never get bigger. Not occassionally bigger. I no longer fish these but many do. What about those lakes? Good thought but tough to manage lake by lake size limits.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I really think they are better off with a Lake to Lake size limmit that they have now. Many lakes have an over population problem and now have stunted fish because of this. If this were the case there would be many lakes in which no fish could be kept.

With that in mind there are quite a few lakes in MN that have a size restriction on them. I know Green Lake in Chisago Co is one of these.. 9" min.

[CrappieJohn]

Exude is on the right track....the crappie lakes are way too varied to ever think about such a move. People who want to keep fish need to develope a sound protocal for what their needs or requirements are....it is called selective harvest.

[BarryG]

When a lake has a LOT of 8-9 in fish you need to keep all you can catch because they are getting over crowded. A couple years of really keeping the 8-9 in fish and you would see the size go up. I fish Mark Twain Lake quite abit and it has an over abundance of 8-9 in and smaller crappie and the DOC wants people to take limits of the smaller fish so they don't compete with the bigger fish for forage. It takes a few more of the small fish to get a good fry going...but that just means you have to go fishing a little more to get them.

[Jmnhunter]

all true, but what about the lakes that all u catch are 10+"'s such as red? I can see the stunted fact, which a state wide min. size would be foolish, but I think lakes such as red and other big crappie lakes.

good luck

jn

[GudeMN]

Barry G....that's interesting to hear that Mark Twain has so many 8-9 inchers. I fished the lake before it got popular (almost 20 years ago) and couldn't believe the size of the crappies we caught. Everything was 12in or bigger. One memorable day we used a trolling motor to get back into the end of a deep creek arm and tied into some legit 16inch White Crappies!! We were actually fishing for bass with 1/4oz 3in Mister Twisters. I thought I had snagged one of the many trees in that creek arm when the first White struck!

Regulating crappies is tough because they school so much and can be easy pickings in the winter. The responsibility is on us to limit our harvest on the fish even when they are smacking anything you put in front of them. Too bad the honor system doesn't work like it used to....I know way too many guys who take a limit every weekend just because they can and that's not just crappies. Perch are another that can get wiped out pretty easily. With more people fishing it's going to be harder to keep quality panfish in the lakes. .

[Kylersk]

either I'm fishing in the wrong spots, or I need to adjust my keeper sizes. So far out of prolly 100 (gotta round up! ) crappies, I've only kept 2. Not enough for dinner. I've thrown back quite a few 8-9" crappies. I've tried to keep anything in the 9.25" mark or better. Most though are in the 5-8" range.

Also, I need to come up with a sunny/blue gill keeper size (I've yet to keep one) Since those would prolly add up to a dinners worth when added to my crappies.

I guess it all adds to experience. Since I'm new to the sport.. it'll take some time figuring out all the 'do's and donts'.

[psegriz]

Back in about 96 or 97 about then. About a 400 acre lake (Games) in central MN had about 15-20 thousand crappie taken out of it acording to the DNR in one month. Granted alot of people were going home with limits and coming back for more. The word got out and everyone was out there (guessing 300+ houses and most were used nightly with everyone getting limits) Now today alot of people still go there and know where to go. The fishing is not as good numbers or size wise. Would the fishing be better with a 10" limit? I don't think so as nothin over 10 1/4 gets back. What would've helped I think is move the limit on distance in fishing next to your neighbor from 10' to say one hundred and ten not feet but yards. Ya that would upset alot of people who heard about it late but would be better fishin now. Before that I'd go out at 3 am and get 4-6 12" and better before work couple times a week. Now it ain't worth going at any time but there are alot of people out there. I think it would help more to limit the crowd. Just IMO.

[Finlander]

No state wide regulation will help all the lakes.

Some lakes produce bigger crappies than others and no regulation will make any differece. Individual lakes could benifit of speacial regulations to keep or protect a growing population.

Lake Esquagemah north of Aitken (800 acres) has billions of 8-9" crappies and I have never caught one over 10".

Mabye the DNR could have a 60 a day limit on that lake to reduce the population so the size of the crappies increase.

Or maybe it is just the fact that there DNA make-up does'nt allow them to get bigger and nothing would affect there size.

Now take Osakis (6,270 acres) I have seen that lake go through population cycles where you thought there were no crappies in the lake. And last winter, I looked in an underwater camera and saw thousands of crappies swimming by along with blugills. And the crappies we did catch were all 10-12" as I believe that lake has all the ingredients to grow big crappies as does any large body of water.

All lakes go through cycles that will affect the population and size structure at times.

It's hard to fool mother nature!

[jigginjim]

Pgriz, we need to find out who the meat hogs are and have the DNR do house searches to burst these poachers.

I talked with one Dnr guy, "write down the lics. numbers of the vechiles leaveing and entering lake."

[only-eyes]

I like the 10-11" mark fro crappies, anything bigger or smaller goes back, they get pretty thick at the 12-14" range and just don't fry up as nice. so red lake trips are fun, but basically catch and release. I think we have only pulled a couple out under 12" from there, there mostly 12+. Does anyone else CPR with crappies, i don't know if it realy helps much, but what the heck, it can't hurt.

[eagleeye2000]

we dont keep any crappies under 10" but its fun to catch any, the biggest this year for us in the duluth area is 12" good luck out there and be safe.....Eagleeye2000