Late Ice + Selective Harvest...

[andrew chadwick]

its nice to see that I am not the only one who practices selective harvest. it has caught on with bass, cats, muskie and even walleye, but not so much with panfish. kudos to all who do it. I know I rarely keep a crappie over 12 inches, or a gill over 9.

[Corey Bechtold]

Well done chadwick!!! This Selective harvest shouldn't be just a late Ice tip but a general rule for the entire season. As soon as the Ice leaves the lakes there will be a good push of fish heading shallow seeking out their spawning areas and with water temps rising they become very aggressive. Practicing the Selective Harvest during this time frame is important to ensure a better future of good sized Panfish for all to enjoy.

Great fishing,

Corey Bechtold

[FishinChad]

Its not exactly the same, but you can look at it this way...

We all should know that when 2 "tall" or "big" people have a child, that child will most likely be tall or big. And same with when 2 short people have a child, most likely that child will be short. Basically, some people have tall or big gene's, and some do not. Like I said its not exactly the same with fish, but I believe the same concept exists. If something was going around eating all of the tall people in this world, how many generations would it take before the average height of people dropped drastically, keep in mind a fish's lifespan is much shorter than humans so it will not take near as long to see the change in fish generations. If you take the big fish out of a lake, you are most likely removing the fish that were genetically capable of growing that big, and if enough of this happens, the consequences will show.

[lazermule]

Well guys, I'm proud to say that I have done my part here. I have never kept any monster crappies or sunnies. Probably because I have never caught any on area lakes. No, seriously I see the point of this post and I think it makes sense. With that said, I have about a 1/4 acre pond on my property that is about 13ft deep and I aerate it year round. I have crappies and sunnies in there that are friggen HUGE I tell you. I never keep any of them, and I instruct my kids and anyone who I let fish it to do the same. The fish were 3-4" when stocked, and now are easily 10-12" long (sunnies) and it has been 4 years. I haven't fished it yet this year so they may even be bigger by now, that's the fun part seeing the size of them in the spring. The crappies have mouths that could pass a golfball, and are one heck of a battle on a flyrod. This is some of the best fun my kids have ever had, they spend days on end of their sunner vacation fishing that pond and learning about fish.

Putting these guys back in the water has paid off for me. I'll post some picts of our pets this spring as soon as I get some. Umm, how do you post picts?

LM

[Kyle Sandberg]

If you don't know how, you could email them to someone and they might be able to do it for you. And don't ask me because I'm a purebred redneck when it comes to stuff like that.

[Corey Bechtold]

I could help you post those pictures... [email protected]

Later,

Corey Bechtold

[Scott K]

If you need help catching some of these fish just let me know, I can help you out there, car of course!