Anyone doing any good at Lake Granger? I was trying for crappie today and didnt do any good. Please help

its not you, Granger has been kind of tough for several years now. lots of small fish. you have to fish ALOT of spots to end up with a decent mess of fish. way too many small brushpiles and crappie condos all over that lake that scattered the fish .. This is the result of overharvesting, with NO monitoring or revised creel limits by the state.. This lake is a perfect example of what happens to crappie populations when the mindset is
CRAPPIE WILL TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES.. THEY POPULATE SO FAST, YOU CANT OVERFISH THEM WITH THE LIMITS WE HAVE IN PLACE..
The lake is small and fishes small due to years of silting in.
if you want to go camp, or have a picnic, its a beautiful, clean, safe place.. but if you want to go hammer some crappie , go somewhere else.. JMO

Thank you for the post, that explains everything

The Texas Fisheries biologists obviously don't agree with your assessment, as this lake has been monitored 6 times since 2013. If it was as drastic as you claim, I believe they would take appropriate actions to remedy that situation. As can be seen in the report the catch per unit effort has been up and down in those surveys. There are many things that play in to this. To say that it's "Due to Over harvesting" is hyperbole. I'll trust the management survey over anecdotal evidence every time. This survey also shows that the gizzard shad population is almost triple what it was in 2016. I'd say that has an effect on the catch rate also. JMHO

Granger Reservoir

2020 Fisheries Management Survey Report

Survey objectives, fisheries metrics, and sampling objectives
White Crappie: White Crappie are the most popular sport fish in Granger Reservoir. White Crappie
accounted for 61.5% of the directed fishing effort in the last creel survey (spring, 2005). White Crappie
anglers caught an estimated 55,057 (RSE = 22.0) White Crappie of which 41.8% were harvested. Of
legal-sized White Crappie caught by anglers, 96.2% were harvested. The majority of White Crappie
harvested were between 10 and 14 inches. White Crappie catch per unit effort in 2020, 2018, 2016, 2015,
2014 and 2013 were 12.6, 34.7, 29.1, 40.3, 40.9, and 13.5/nn respectively.
White Crappie will be collected biennially using a minimum of 15 shoreline-set single-cod trap nets.
Target sample sizes to evaluate size structure and CPUE will be 50 stock-length fish, and an RSE of
CPUE-S < 30. Sampling will continue at random stations until a minimum of 50 stock size White Crappie
have been collected. In addition to the original 15 random stations, five additional random stations will be
pre-determined in the event extra sampling is necessary. Individual weights will be collected for a
minimum of 10 White Crappie per inch-class to determine relative weights. Age and growth
characteristics will be determined using a sub-sample (maximum of 10 fish per inch class) of stock-size (≥
5 inches) White Crappie (Category 1, variable sample size).

Best bite right now has been up river at night, been catching some nice ones the last few times out.

This year has been really, really strange( the spawn) even the old timers (including me i guesss) can not figure what is going on.

Thanks for that info RODS, good to know. Looks like TX P&W is doing more monitoring of crappie in Granger than previously reported.

thanks for the information, but I have alot of questions
1 where are they getting the reports of catch rates per angler? is this the fishing liscense questionaire? where people will report anything just to get thru the process and get thier license so they can actually go fish?
are they interviewing fisherman on the lakes? never heard of that , or possibly local guides? who have a very vested interest in saying that everything is rainbows and unicorns?
the data says that out of 55,057 crappie caught, 41.8 percent were harvested, so that would mean that approx a little less than half of the fish caught were keepers.?
if I could catch 1 keeper for even every 8 fish on Granger I would still fish there.
also I dont find that "monitoring " a lake only 6 times in 10 years is very effective or vigilant monitoring .
Ive long known that most texas lakes are too deep for electro fishing, so it would be interesting to see how they are sampling with a cod "trap" net. is this a gill net? or is it like a large crab trap,. but for fish?

please follow up on the information you posted with some details and clarity,, CPUE, RSE, CPUE-S,13.5/nn .. means nothing to most folks,,
and last but not least whens the last time you fished Granger and how did it go?

I have actually been interviewed twice on the water at different lakes. Joe Pool and Bardwell. Now I normally fish during the week and I am more likely to see these guys out and about.
"I dont find that "monitoring " a lake only 6 times in 10 years is very effective or vigilant monitoring." So what do you expect from them? A couple of times each year for every lake in Texas? That's not very realistic. Here is the link to the report.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/lake_survey/pwd_rp_t3200_1301_2020.pdf

"last but not least whens the last time you fished Granger and how did it go?" Does this comment imply that if someone hasn't fished a lake that their input to a conversation is invalid? Kinda snarky. I'm just showing that your claim is not shared by the biologists.

Like learning post said to many brushpiles and crappie condos have the crappie scattered and I haven't caught spawning crappie in 3 of my spots in the last 3 years due to being silted in.I believe the population is doing good though just they are adapting to the changes

PM sent to LP

There are way too many structures in the lake. This has been the case for a long time when the craze of putting structures in a body of water every year caught on. I participated long ago and stopped after listening to a few guides who said the same thing that LP stated. With so many structures in the lake, the fish has a lot of choices. IMHO, there is plenty of decent fish. The angler must fish and scoot often to get a decent stringer. Life finds a way. That was an awesome read, thank you for sharing!

"anglers caught an estimated 55,057 (RSE = 22.0) White Crappie of which 41.8% were harvested. Of
legal-sized White Crappie caught by anglers, 96.2% were harvested. The majority of White Crappie
harvested were between 10 and 14 inches. White Crappie catch per unit effort in 2020, 2018, 2016, 2015,
2014 and 2013 were 12.6, 34.7, 29.1, 40.3, 40.9, and 13.5/nn respectively."

I would love to know the sources and methods used to collect the information above.
that would take ALOT of on water interviews.. lets just say the average catch effort was 15 fish per effort..
55,000 divided by 15 units per catch would mean they had to interview thousands of anglers, or just a few, and make a very vague guess.. not trying to devalue the information that was posted, but would like to understand how it was collected, because the things that really count, such as a fishery that a beginning or casual angler can go out and have an enjoyable day, with a good opportunity to catch a nice mess of fish in a reasonable period of time, is not an easy thing to do on Granger for quite a few years now. jmo

what happened was there were 3 to four guides guiding on that small lake at one time.,., so to try and get an edge, and make sure the clients were happy, guides and regular anglers alike started putting out thier own "personal" piles... very small stuff that most would not be able to find, or were less likely to fish,, sometimes just a bucket with a golf club sticking out of it,, or a bucket with a couple pvc pipes in it.,
so the guides, they have to work harder in a sense and may have to fish 50 spots to get 15 to 20 fish, going from spot to spot all day long, hoping to catch one or two fish off of every 3rd or 4th spot.
people tend to adapt to thier situations, and I understand how this happened.
as far as the larger "community " piles, a savvy guide will hit those first , that way if theres any fish on them, they get first crack at them before the crowds show up, THEN go to the personal piles.
one thing thats going to be a great equalizer on lakes such as Granger, is livescope. with livescope, the cover or structure doesnt matter much anymore, because your looking for the fish. often times I find the fish long before I see what they are relating to, IF they are relating to anything. if they arent relating to cover or structure, you can always find them roaming im open water, or sitting on the bottom. Times are a changing!