In nature, things seem to adapt to thier environments in order to survive as a species.
with so many fisherman having livescope technology now, and soon most will have it as competition creates lower prices, I have wondered what will become of crappie fishing.
Here are some thoughts,, being crappie primarily relate to cover and structure, 90 percent of the crappie can now be located, and frequently targeted on larger, easily found cover. if every time a school moves onto a piece of cover or structure, they are harvested, either completely, or to just a few, I think crappie will start to adapt, and go to smaller, more obscured less fished locations, or slowly transition to more of an open water roaming tendency.
This has been observed on smaller lakes with tremendous pressure, before livescope was ever invented.
when the fish begin to get scarce on larger "community piles" , fisherman tend to start installing smaller "personal" piles that are harder to find
these piles hold less fish usually, but sometimes the larger fish.
I personally am already seeing this on lakes I fish, and have started to pay more attention to finding and fishing smaller cover and structure.

in a nutshell, I believe livescope technology will affect crappie fishing in a few years to come in terms of locations and population,.
Texas has a great wildlife management program, but the fact is, population sampling does not happen
. most texas lakes are too deep to net sample, or electroshock to get counts on them Nor are crappie are stocked in texas lakes,. .
The general assumption is that crappie proliferate so much, that they can never be decimated by the current methods and creel limits that are in place.. . Its going to be interesting to see how livescope affects crappie fishing in the next 4 or 5 years.
looking at crappie populations on lakes from a logical perspective, if crappie are so prolific , then why are most lakes not infested with the species? I know of one lake that I believe crappie are the predominant species, but its due to a huge part of the lake being excellent spawning grounds...
common wisdom says that 70 to 80 percent are eaten by other fish, and crappie themselves also cannibalize thier young
This number will remain relatively static to the amount of hatchlings produced year to year.
So if 20 percent of the hatchlings on a lake reach maturity, at a 10 inch length; but the harvest rate increases by 300 percent (just a educated guess). there is no doubt that crappie populations will be affected.
It is also my opinion that the 2 to 5 year old crappie do the bulk of the spawning, not the 8 to 10 inch yearlings..
Livescope allows a person who could not catch a crappie if you tied it to a rope and threw it in thier boat, to a person who can easily locate a tree or brushpile and catch every fish off of it.
My hope is that TPWD monitors the situation and finds a way to get a better assessment of crappie populations on lakes.
just assuming that the crappie population cannot be affected with current creel limits is not the way to go in my opinion.

I don’t think it will impact much. Yes people are catching more crappie, but crappie or so plentiful not a big deal. It does seem like they are getting harder to catch on a jig, so that could be an impact from LS, crappie are seeing more jigs in their face, so getting harder to “trick” them..

I think it depends on the lake. The only place I have been to in the last year I have had livescope that I saw spooky fish was Fork and that is the most pressured lake I have been to. I think fishing pressure in general changes the fish's habits over time.

IMO it already has. They won’t become extinct but they’re getting smarter for sure!! Lakes like a Grenada and Darbonne get beat up daily and those are the spookiest fish I’ve ever seen! Linda like deer in east Texas. When you slow the truck down they take off! The hill country deer walk out to see if your gonna feed em still!!! Now a lot of times you see a pile of fish and catch a few the rest swim off where you used to could catch a bunch in one spot. We still do sometimes but not like we used too.

I love to Crappie fish, my wife and I crappie fish about 100 days a year at Fork. Between the two of us we might keep
100-150 a year, that's 200 to 300 fillets, the rest are released, we fish for fun. And that's with giving some to retirees in my RV park enough for a meal now and then
So some one answer this for me...why is a limit per person per day 25 ? That's 9000 fish a year,...18,000 fillets.
How many Crappie do you need to have to eat. ??
I can only keep 5 Black Bass at Fork per day, and none in the slot,....why cant I keep 25...??
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Crappie proliferation is solely dependent on bait species availability, and lake conditions. We have a small private lake that was stocked years ago with crappie, bluegill, bass, and channel cats. Bluegill and Bass are everywhere, mature channel cats are often caught, but I rarely see smaller ones caught. Crappie overall are few and far between. Personally, I believe this is because they are a prime forage species, especially the young ones, since some knucklehead didn't want to put shad or other small bait fish species in the lake.

I certainly can't say I disagree that Livescope will negatively affect crappie fishing.

The increase in fisherman is the bigger picture

The positive that I see with Livescope is for the fisherman, don’t see it as a positive for the crappie population unless fishermen use Livescope to harvest other fish that compete with crappie for bait fish

likely number 1 crappie grow faster than largemouth
and 2, fisherman will come from far away for a chance at trophy bass.. like lake fork.

Yep

thats a great point as ALOT of people got into fishing during the height of the pandemic. its one of the few fun things folks had to do, while being able to maintain a distance from others. many of these people who had never got much into fishing are now lifetime enthusiasts.
So much so it created a tackle shortage that has never caught up to demand.

thats a great point as ALOT of people got into fishing during the height of the pandemic. its one of the few fun things folks had to do, while being able to maintain a distance from others. many of these people who had never got much into fishing are now lifetime enthusiasts.
So much so it created a tackle shortage that has never caught up to demand.

yes fishing pressure, and it is increased dramatically when only the piles that have fish on them are CONSTANLY targeted.
before livescope, a fisherman would go from pile to pile to pile, sampling, spending maybe 15, 20 minutes on each spot. in the back of thier mind, they are going thru the age old questions.. 1 are they here but not biting, 2 are there none here..
So the fisherman had to spend ALOT more time fishing each pile, until they got to one that was productive..
Now its drop the scope, take a look, if theres fish , drop the hook.. if the fish arent active, its off to the next one.,
this is tremedous pressure , whereas the spots holding the fish are almost constanly harrassed. JMO

Wisdom , and the fact that electronics make average guy better at catching them. My personal limit is 15 , fills two freezer bags and worth the mess of cleaning them.

I have seen that the bigger concentrations of BIG Fish prefer smaller structure years before livescope was every known to exist and now that I have livescope I know for a fact the bigger fish prefer smaller isolated cover.....
What I've heard from a few biologist is the more room there is for crappie the more they will spawn and why as long a the fishermen are legally fishing they won't hurt the population without a big intervention either by nature or by man....
I caught my 3lber on an isolated stump and have won several of my local crappie tourneys by fishing the less pressured stumps.....
I was catching and keeping 25 on some trips before livescope and can still only catch and keep 25 with livescope other than the take my clients have......
Every fish biologists will tell you crappie have to be harvested to prevent them from over populating.....

yes, ive been told the same thing, but your getting this info based on an assumption only..
the biologist have no clue how many crappie are on any lake in texas,
I used to fish a lake called stillhouse hollow and it was fair .. over the years it became horrible, and nothing is done to get the crappie back in there thriving.. TPWD will not stock it, or any other lake with crappie.
The biologist I spoke with abt this lake said it was due to lack of nutrients flowing into the lake as it is a clear, deep lake.
my opinion is that it was the frequent flooding that destroyed spawning grounds because when the lake floods it pulls ALOT of current thru it. if it lacked nutrients, then why were the crappie thriving several years before?
The why is not as important though, whats important is that nobody is going to do anything abt it.
Larger lakes that are thriving and have great spawns year to year wont be affected as much as smaller lakes I think.
Granger lake is another example, but different circumstances.. nutrient rich , relatively stable, but is full of small crappie.
you have to catch 20 to get one 10 inch fish,., this points to overharvesting and fishing pressure. it used to be great but for the last 5 or 6 years, this is how its been, and nothing is done about it..
biologist tend to say, the reason is theres good years and bad years,, but they will be ALRIGHT.,
I think that if the biologist teamed up with fishing guides, and rode around, sampling different locations by using livescope and rod and reel, it could give them a better idea of the crappie population on a lake. being crappie tend to relate to cover and structure, I think helpful data could be collected year to year on approximate fish populations..
If a guide has 300 spots marked on a lake, that are known crappie hangouts, and 30 are randomly sampled,. this could give an idea of the population. log books of catches by guides would be a great way to monitor as well.
I spoke with a white bass guide in central texas many years back,, he is a very successful guide and does it full time. he is a catch and release guide service.. you cannot keep fish on his trips. I asked why he does this, and the reply was " when you let clients keep hundreds of fish day after day after day, you are cutting your own throat'.. he explained to me that the clients for the most part, just want to go on an excursion, they want to feel that tug on thier line, and have a fun positive experience with friends or family. the clients you want are not the ones trying to fill the freezer, its the ones who want knowledge and fun.
The clients he takes out have more of a conservationist mindset, professional background, and are usually well to do, respectful., generous clientele. They appreciate being able to take thier kids out and watch thier faces light up, when catching fish after fish
I thought abt this.. it really makes alot of sense. its his business and he can run it his way.
theres no reason a crappie guide cannot make thier own rules. A guide could say, heres how I run my trips.. I allow a 10 fish limit per client. This is my livelyhood, my passion and im doing my part to insure that you and your family will have a great time CATCHING fish, if you want a freezer full of fish, tilapia is cheap, and Heb has plenty.

. I think the majority of clients would understand and respect this standard,
if you ever talk to an adult who doesnt fish, ask them why
heres what you will likely get from them
well when I was a kid, my dad took me a few times, and we really didnt catch anything,, it was boring and not fun, so we didnt go anymore.


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