Posted By: big red dog
TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 02:09 PM
Beginning Sept. 1st anglers can keep up to 5 bass with a 16 inch maximum length. I guess they're trying to entice more people to fish there so they can make up the financial loss caused by the grass carp fiasco. Either that or they figure the lake can't support many bass without vegetation. I've fished there 4 weekdays this spring and there was never more than 2 trailers in the parking lot. Twice I was the only boat on the water. Most of the days fishing was tough, so I can also testify that lake is not suffering from an over population of small bass. The bass population is nowhere near what it was in the hydrilla/lily pad days.
Posted By: 5Redman8
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 02:13 PM
At some point...all lakes need a harvest. Carrying capacity determines the amount of biomass.
Would you rather have 1,000 small fish at 1lbs each or 200 fish at 5lbs.
Not sure they are screwing this up as much as they did screw up by adding the grass carp.
Posted By: ChuChu1
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 02:14 PM
Have you read the lake survey?
Posted By: ChuChu1
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 02:23 PM
Largemouth Bass: The fall 2016 catch rate of 105/h was up from the previous two fall surveys (Figure
7). However, size structure of the 2016 survey consisted primarily of fish less than 11 inches. Improved
catch rate and low PSD are likely a product of strong 2014/2015 year classes. Body condition was good
(Wr > 90) for smaller individuals and declined with increasing fish length (Figure 7). However, the low
Wr’s for larger fish (15 inches and up) could be a product of the low sample size for these length groups.
Age and growth analysis was not conducted as prescribed in the OBS plan due to very few fish collected
in the target size range (13.1 – 14.9 inches) during the fall 2016 survey.
Similar to the fall surveys, the spring 2017 catch rate of 160/h was up from the previous two spring
surveys (Figure 8). The spring survey continued to collect a greater number of large fish; PSD has
ranged from 66-80 over the last three surveys.
Directed fishing effort and catch per hour for Largemouth Bass was 1,558 h and 0.35 fish/h respectively,
from December 2014 through May 2015 (Table 11). Due to the current catch-and-release regulation all
bass were released.
Posted By: Mark Perry
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 02:23 PM
I'll trust TP&W over bro science.
How much does it cost to fish Purtis Creek now?I haven't been in over 20+ years when the fishing was really good.
Posted By: Jarrett Latta
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 02:33 PM
The survey suggests a ton of small fish. It's not like guys will rush to purtis to keep a bunch of dinks.
Posted By: andy52887
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 02:36 PM
You do realize most people don’t keep bass these days. Go to a busy boat ramp and see how many people leave with a dry livewell. Growing up we kept everything and always caught the mess out of fish. With all this catch and release you catch 10 you feel like you had a great day. Heck 10 years ago if I didn’t catch 30 i was disappointed.
Posted By: Douglas J
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 02:53 PM
is it against the rules to call a "post" dumb???
Posted By: ChuChu1
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 03:03 PM
The survey suggests a ton of small fish. It's not like guys will rush to purtis to keep a bunch of dinks.
They need to for a healthy fishery.
Posted By: Brutaldudeski
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 03:11 PM
The amount of ignorance is so astounding in this thread. I love where it says they are making money off of a 5 fish limit
Posted By: D Forney
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 03:55 PM
Most agree the fishing is not near as good as when the little lake had grass. Tpwd has ruined many lakes for bass with the grass carp.
I see the recreational side for non fishing boaters/ jet skiers , but this little lake has too much structure to ski or haul butt.
I wish the guy that likes growing the grass [censored] would retire, or at least focus on another species.
Posted By: Brad R
Re: TP&W screws Purtis Creek again. - 04/29/18 08:54 PM
Idle only/lake size/boat # limits, these will likely keep PC pretty steady as a fishery. I just don't think guys with big bass boats want to idle around on a lake as often as those bigger lakes they can cover water in.
TPWD did the same thing eradicating vegetation on Raven, again, the invasive species argument and that Raven so very filled up with green stuff that it made fishing from the banks very difficult. It is a popular camping destination so those people have a voice, too.
For me? I think PC fishes very well, both a good numbers lake for a bunch of 2 +/- lbs. fish and an above average lake for size. I was there a month or so ago the same day the angler caught the 11+ pounder and I caught a 4+ pounder in the same cove later in the day. I have never been out there when someone hasn't either reported catching a large bass or telling about someone else's catch. 6 and 8 lbs. bass are pretty common topics.
Guys out there are pulling in tons of crappie, too, though I don't target them. I'd imagine that crappie will still be the targeted fish for eating.
$5 for me to drag my kayak in, not certain if its pricing structure is different for boats, etc.
I'm okay with culling the lake, see the value in it, just don't think there'll be much of it actually going on.
Brad