Good idea. It can't hurt. My boat is 11' and up and only keep 15. That's more than I like to clean.

That is great then. It was not stated in the post of only putting 20 under the knife. We still have the whole month of February to get thru though.

Kudos to the guides for being proactive to protect our sport. would like to see the science and biologists back this up even if they are behind the curve. what would happen if the price of livescope/live sonar is $99 in 5 or 10 years? i would like to see Texas building more reservoirs too!

btw - i've had a self imposed limit for years! involuntary limit!

Not a FB user so interested in the reasoning behind the issue.
Was any data/research presented to support the need for a reduction?
Resource being over fished by guides?
Trophy quality suffering?
Why 20 limit only for guides?

Been fishing for crappie a long time and have plenty of opinions. But not gonna stick my neck out and say a limit reduction is a move to support conservation. What's happening on Fork is not the same as what's happening on Navarro Mills or Richland Chambers.

I shoot for 15 , Livescope makes hacks like me into crappie anglers it's got to be impacting the fish populations. If TPW imposed a reduction it wouldn't bother me at all. I can only eat so much crappie in a sitting.

I would really just love to see them handle the excessive harvest by some of our newer members of the community

what's happening on Navarro Mills or Richland Chambers ?

I'd like to see the data to back up where this is hurting the fisheries. Not anecdotal data like "well we used to catch a lot more fish" or "we used to catch more big fish". That's more than likely just the result of the normal cycle of a lake and not due to angler pressure. Every biologist I have seen weigh in on the subject agree that anglers need to keep more fish. Not more than their limit. But they need more people keeping their limit to keep the populations in check. This is exactly why lakes like Fork and LOP have requirements that anglers keep EVERYTHING they catch up to 25 During December and January. Crappie are prolific reproducers. It would take every fisherman keeping their limit every time they went out to even make a dent in the population.

I think it’s a good idea to reduce it to 10; that way I can say I limited out more often!

Haven't fished either one in a couple yrs; but I doubt you will be able to find 20+ full time crappie guides fishing either lake. And I would guess the number of crappie fishermen on NM in a year is about equal to 6 weeks count on Fork in the spring. Just guessing of course, but I think most people would agree those two bodies of water differ greatly in a lot of aspects from Fork.

Personally, 20 per person is plenty. And I'm with the 15 stated above. But before I sound my trumpet like I have the answer, I'd like to see some research data to prove this is a move in the right direction. This might do more harm than good. Crappie fishing is more popular than ever and we all know more people are on the water. So logic would seem to indicate a reduction in limits is necessary. And if that's your belief, set a lower limit. From what I've read on this Forum over the yrs, most people here keep far less than a limit even when they are catching well.

it has to be great for guides too. 5 less fish per person to catch, 5 less per person to clean X 20 customers a week ( low ball ) 100 less to catch A week X 40 weeks a year. Thats 4000 a year per guide X how many guides per lake ??? It is a win win. lake retains fish and guide limits earlier.

Will that 20 per day also apply to the old guy out 4-5 times a year trying to feed his family some fish ?

Makes you think

We have self imposed limit 10 a day on Callender lake. But no fishing pressure like the public lakes

Conservation is a great thing... Kudos to the guides that are on board, however, there are also other things that "may" need to be considered to manage conservation. The number of guides on one lake for one species "may" need to be factored in. Perhaps a lottery system like they have for hunting public land to control numbers.
I too would be interested in knowing the facts of how this will be a good thing or a bad thing for our sport of Crappie fishing.
Seems to be a fair start and certainly a good conversation starter.

Tilt man says “ I would really just love to see them handle the excessive harvest by some of our newer members of the community”
I have a couple of questions. Who is ‘them’? And who in this community is taking excessive harvest? I’ve only seen post with people and their legal limit. The state biologist are going to be the ones with the final say in the matter. I would personally prefer they imposed some sort of slot limit and cut down on the larger fish being depleted. I’m no biologist but the slot for bass seems to work in certain situations. I have to believe that with all the hype and complaining going on over Livescope that it is on the states radar. And with Humminbird and Lowrance jumping in to the mix, it’s only gonna hype it up more.

I think that we should wait for numbers, but I can't get behind nerfing the limits for everyone, when "everyone" isn't the problem.

Well......there are folks that tend to eat everything that swims , when I say new members of our community I mean some people that may or may not come from a land that has virtually no game regulations so when they come here in some cases even buying a license doesn’t even come to mind let alone measuring or counting catch. And since game warden siting on some lakes are scarce they go unchecked. I have even seen them netting and not throwing a single thing back.

The same hype went on when Side Image and Down Image was introduced. Lake Fork and LOP get fished hard yet big, big fish and limits keep getting caught, and Livescope has been on boats for two-plus years now. The Fork will have I believe four big crappie events on it come March. She will be tired but still produce limits. I'm no rocket scientist but I do know that TP&W knows a thing or two. I like the movement that the group of guides has made and will hopefully bring about resolve to the everlasting question with Live Sonar depleting our fisheries. If there is one thing depleting our fisheries it is not Sonar. Does it have an effect, I'm not saying it doesn't.