So here's my concern. First, as a post stated earlier that guides catch 100/day, 700/ week is over 210,000 a year. Not! That's a range of 30K - 36K crappie per year, still a lot, but a big difference from 210K.

Also, asking guides to lower the limit to 15 fish. When I hire a guide, it's to put fish in the freezer. I know how to fish but do not have a boat, so an instructional trip on electronics is out of the question for me and if guides lowers their limits to 15 and charges the same price (approx $300/half day), then that too will be out of the question. I love crappie, but not at $20/ea, no sir.

I think we have to use our own judgement and common sense. I don't think there's a need to fish everyday and limit out just to have a freezer full of fish. If you fish 1-2 times a month like i do, then I don't think a limit of 25 will hurt the crappie population (even if you catch your limit). Just my

You need to check your math. 100 fish per day for 300 days per year is 30,000 crappie. That�s still a significant number of fish, but it�s 180,000 less than what you had stated.

The good news is that there will be an extra 180,000 fish swimming around now.

LOL...good catch.
At any rate, it's a lot of fish and that's just for one guide.

PS. I edited my original post numbers

L......O......L.... Well however you spell that silly birds silly name it's still silly they are protected.....
I've seen some eat crappie over 10 inches...... they are trash.....

Well just so y'all know I went and iced down 25 thick beautiful crappie 11 to 13 1/2" today......

That wind was some kinda terrible...... and my crazy camera keep over temping.....

Go get you some.....

I didn't hurt the population today for sure. Two of us caught and released 12 crappie today before giving up at 10:30 because of the wind.

Does anybody else think an 11" in crappie is perfect eating size? My wife and I can only eat 5 or 6 fish so that's all we keep when we go out, but big ones go back for me. I find the smaller keepers to be a good thickness of filet, that crisps up better. I don't like a big thick filet that's all mushy from these hot water texas fish

x2 Good judgement. If I THINK I need to measure, fish goes in lake. Also agree why I would go with a guide,1or 2 times yr.To get a limit for stosk the freezer. Maybe make size limit 11in. Keep # at 25. EVERYONE wants to catch Big cpappie, bass big bucks big boo#@$^^ woops carried away. My point is it's human nature. YOU don't have too keep biguns.

I personally am good with the limit where it is now, but that is me. I normally do not keep many, but the last few trips have as I am feeding a 100 people for one of my wounded warrior events, but other than that, my wife does not eat them, nor my son, so it is just me. I do fish several times a week, but except for right now while building my stock for this event, I let them go. I do not want to see the limits moved down. I do see it as the responsibility of every person fishing to uphold the law, to include stepping in when someone is not. I have had to do that with deer hunting before and I have called the Game Warden on myself as if I do not follow the law (knowingly or unknowingly) I am wrong. The laws are there for a reason, not just to get us into trouble.

Since quite a few are going to post opinions, here�s mine. I�m going to trust biologists much more than some of y�all. Sorry. Those people get paid to study this stuff, and to do surveys to collect data.

I believe that if someone wants to say large fish will be thinned out, that�s possible. I believe one of the bets things for the population is to take fish out of the water. Read the studies. The habitat can only support so much.

I�m not sure how many of you deer hunt. Same theory. In some places, such as the place I hunt, the biologists wants us to take more and more doe. They are trying to make sure there are not too many deer for the land to support in a good fashion. The more deer that are removed, removes some competition for the ones that are left. It keeps the herd healthy.

That being said, I didn�t keep any today.

After thinking about it for awhile I agree the state biologists will monitor the limits and take care of the future. I will personally continue to release most of the fish I catch but leave it up to the individual fishermen to keep legal fish if they wish.

I imposed the 11" minimum on myself several years ago so no issue there. I realize guides have to make a living but I feel the decline in crappie size on a certain lake in this area can be attributed to a guide service that runs multiple boats and posts pics with huge limits of fish almost weekly. Again, not knocking someone for trying to make a living but this dude acts like he owns the lake.