Should there be limits on crappies and sunfish in Iowa?

[idratherbefishing]

What are people's opinions on putting limits on crappies and sunfish in Iowa?

[big shrek]

yes there should be for instiance in spirit lake in late ice the crappies just get slotered. certine people keep everything they catch. if all of us did that we wouldn't have any fish left.

[Whisker Trout Slayer]

Yes and no, how is that answer for you.

Yes on lakes that have higher traffic.

No since there are a bunch of lakes and ponds that the fish are stunted since there are sooo many of them.

Of course it would be tough to enforce the rules if some lakes had a limit and the next one down the road doesn't. But then it would be just like conditions ocer by the Mississippi.

This one would be debated for quite some time.

[goodyy7]

WTS is right on the money...Yes and No....depends on the lake/water.

Fact is in Iowa that selective catch and release to better the lake is a foreign concept to most. This is especially true in ice fishing where old timers (and some newbies) feel they have to keep buckets of fish at every outing and can drain a system.

There are some lakes that really need this, others that need a no-holds-barred type of approach to cleaning the panfish out. This is so hard to manage and regulate that I dont forsee any type of limits being imposed any time soon.

Ultimately, best case scenario is that fishermen figure out some of this for themselves and gain a better understanding of the waters they fish and what kind of pressure they can healthily withstand.

goody

[Little Worm]

I think so. I remember one year down at three mile, everyone carried buckets of crappies off the lake. I am as gulity as everyone else, I like to eat panfish through the ice and I hate to clean fish. The one time a year I keep fish, I go for numbers. I kept 3/4 of a pail of mostly bluegills, a few crappies, a few perch and a couple of walleyes that we caught on Saturday. The down side to what I did is I was purly meat fishing. I up side is that I have 8 packages of fish in the freezer and will not keep any again until the one time I keep fish next winter. Am I a conservationist or a meat hunter? In Wisconsin, they have a limit of 25 panfish per day with a maximum limit of I think 50. That's probably reasonable.

[delmuts]

this has been talked about by a lot of people, except the DNR. they don't even want to talk about it. i watched last fall a guy take home a pail full of crappies for many days in a row. i do and did take 25 home for a number of days.( i don't ice fish and love to eat panfish) so i did stock up.( there aren't many left. ) but this guy and many like him i've talked to think if you can catch a bunch of fish, they must be over populated ! hmmm! he did brag that he had taken 1387 fish home in 6 weeks . then he can brag how great a fisherman he is ! he gives most of them away. this little lake gets pounded and if they are biting it is packed.i would love to see a limit of say 25 of each, but it won't happen, or if it does it is a long ways off! i have hopes having a limitt on the miss. in a couple of places is a start. time will tell. from what i have seen; you may not change the numbers much in a body of water, but man you can sure destroy the size structure!ok! i'm done whining! as said, there are so many variables , that it would be hard to place an effective state wide limit . time will tell!

[Carp-fisher]

I lived and fished in Iowa for 20 years and here are my thoughts: There should be limits on crappies and sunfish in Iowa, but I don't believe they need to be as regulated as they are in Minnesota. Iowa lakes and ponds just don't get the pressure that the bodies of water up here do. That being said , however, I really do think that Iowa needs more enforcement of its wildlife laws. I've spent countless days and nights fishing below Saylorville (Contact US Regarding This Word) and I can't tell you how many trophy walleyes and flathead catfish that I've seen poached by intentional snagging (I hate to sound racist but by mostly Mexicans and Laotians). I had a smallmouth bass honey hole in the S. Skunk River near Ames, and I've seen groups of Mexicans (probably none legal aliens) keeping scores of undersized bass off their spawn beds. I fished below the Brushy Creek spillway and have seen large groups of Mexicans netting walleyes and muskies with large gillnets. I fished Briggs Woods lake by Webster City...large groups of Loatians would go out and snaghook crappies and bass off their spawn beds, the list goes on. I really think the widespread poaching problem in Iowa does much more damage to fisheries than keeping too many bluegills.

[OldBear]

I'd go for a reasonable limit, 25 was mentioned. In a lot of cases large catches may be just wasted as people get out of the mood with all those fish to clean when they get home..

Steve

[JIvers]

On some waters, certainly. I have seen for myself on Pools 5a and 8 of the Mississippi in Minnesota how tighter limits improve bluegill size. Those pools, as well as Pool 5, have a ten-fish limit on sunfish, and it has resulted in larger fish.

Some lakes in Iowa would certainly benefit from a possession limit; I have watched five-gallon pails of crappies carried off Macbride during hot bites, and I have to believe that has an effect on the population.

On other lakes, the bluegill population suffers from poor water quality, competition with shad for food, or poor weed cover. In those cases, bluegill populations seem to remain stunted no matter what is done. Heavy harvest may actually help such waters--Macbride's bluegills come to mind. On other lakes like Pleasant Creek, where a decent perch population seems to keep bluegill numbers in check which leaves more food for the bluegills remaining, possession limits might help grow larger fish.

I have heard from different sources that the IDNR refuses to consider some sort of bluegill limits for waters where it might help--I suspect this is a case of politics trumping biology. The DNR relies on the governor for appointments, and the legislature for funding, and those bodies rely on voters to put them in office. I believe that the IDNR has chosen the path of least resistance on this issue, as imposing panfish limits would produce a lot of griping from the people who like harvesting buckets of fish. It is just easier for the DNR to leave things the way they are, and not rock the boat.

[IceFever]

Del,there are limits on the miss.Unless they changed it, its 25 each

[delmuts]

i wondered, but since i almost never fish there. i hadn't really noticed if the river had limits on them or not.

[rod bender]

The TIP number is 1-800-532-2020. Sounds like we should all put it in our cell phones to protect our resources.

[EYEFINDER]

I think that in today's world with the number of good fisherman out there, the technology, knowledge, and equipment that we have to catch fish, there has to be limits. We can't expect good fishing to continue year in and year out with the amount of fish that get taken out at certain times of the year. I personally have put a limit of 25 fish on myself. That can be a mix of crappies, gills, or perch. That's more than enough for a nice meal and when they are gone it's a great excuse to go fishing again. I once cleaned 70 gills and I won't do it again. I love panfish and I hope we all take care of this great resource!!

[delmuts]

eye ! man are you right! i fish a little lake called volga a lot. early in the year one can catch 3-5 lb bass around shore. then they get taken home. if you get out on the lake you will catch alot of fish that have been caught before. if the panfish are going a 100+ fish a day is not uncommon.i'm like you. 25 is my limit usually. that's enough to clean. it drives people crazy to watch you turn a nice fish loose MAN i can't wait for open water del

[abens1078]

I've noticed that technology is brought up more and more in these types of discussions regarding limits. This past weekend I watched 3 guys sit around an underwater camera. The middle guy could see all 3 hooks on the screen and he would tell the other two when they had fish looking at the bait. The bites were so light that the others would never have known they had been hit. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with that at this point and I am not about to lecture anyone who fishes this way but I wish the DNR would put a limit on numbers. We could end up putting a real hurt on our populations if we eliminate bait stealing all together .

A real cool thing(wishful thinking) would be a couple lakes with posession limit and a slot on Crappies and blugills. Throw them back over 12" for crappies and 10" for gills. Just to see how big they could get but as mentioned above that would make someone unpopular and that doesn't work in politics.