Rule #1 as an outdoorsman, never look hunting and fish cost as a cost per animal taken. It will never look good, plus your wife might see it.

Buddy of mine told me 15 years ago I could get into crappie fishing for like $35! That was $235k ago!!

Trust me on this, $235K is cheaper than 2 divorces.

I wish my one divorce was only that much

Lats time I went with a guide on Grenada, I paid $400.00 for me and my wife.
We caught 40 fish, $10.00 each. Just saying Biden has ruined everything
Am I getting a discount because I let you and Clay dry out on my deck during the thunber storm a few years back?

Heck yeah!!! That day was miserable!!!

Always wondered what the reasoning is when you can keep only so many fish over a certain length but the rest of the limit under that length. I guess those 11" fish will never grow to 12" fish. For sure they won't if they're all caught. We've heard the biologist here state crappie life span is usually 5 yrs. If true, not sure I understand how not keeping the 12" fish is going to help. Per growth rate here in TX, supposedly crappie need 5 yrs to reach 12" or bigger. So, after the 10 fish over 12" is reached, and I throw the remainder back, does that mean they will now live another year or two to 13-14"???

Biologist in TX have stated that spawning conditions have a much greater effect on total numbers than fishing pressure. And current fishing pressure here can't harm the overall population. But in Mississippi, the biologist study indicates FFS has a big impact. Is fishing pressure on some TX lakes not as great as in MS? I don't know; but I do know the pressure is increasing.

I think there's a vast amount of knowledge missing in setting these limits. Are more being caught, definitely. Is a size limit for certain numbers of fish the answer, or just lower the limit in total to 15 per person? The fisheries biologist has a tough job for sure. Wouldn't want to be one. Can't win.

It used to be that in the spring, the four corp lakes would get hit hard Feb thru May and then only the spider riggers would be on the lakes. Now with live scope, more folks are fishing them year round.
That over 12" rule is great if you don't need fish but like to feel the thump. I was fishing Enid lake a few years back and must have caught forty 11.75" crappie.
No doubt the crappie fishing in Texas has increased and FFS has a lot to do with it.

To make my reply's logic seem obvious, imagine a lake of a size that should support 500k healthy large crappie. Note that there is a maximum pounds of fish per acre any given impoundment can support - it's not endless. Now, in that lake, instead of 500k large fish, we have 50k large fish, and 2 million 6 inch fish. Those 6 inch fish will consume so much forage/food that none of them will ever get any decent odds of growing much larger - there just isn't enough food to go around. In fact, over time more fish are hatched, so the fixed lake acreage is supporting more and more mouths to feed. This will result in the size of a larger percent of the population becoming smaller and smaller over time. In virtually all instances, a generous creel limit of smaller fish is all about re-balancing the lake population to a more healthy size distribution so that the lake can more readily support fish more rapidly growing to that slab size you want. Creel limits that have a size component are used to encourage the removal of the over-crowded size-category.

I know of one trophy bass lake that anglers practiced catch & release so effectively that a lake became severely over-populated with smaller fish, so a special limit was put in place. Bass under 12" were allowed - at a creel limit of 30 per person while bass over 12" were rather restricted. Fishing the lake revealed it was indeed messed up bad - you could catch 100 10 inch fish with your eyes closed it seemed. The state even promoted the removal of the smaller fish to help the health of the fish population.

I could not agree more.. millions of dollars get donated to the fish hatchery in Athens tx and the state laps that money up.. BASS BASS BASS BASS BASS.. I visited the hatchery a couple years back and asked why they had no crappie hatchery program and they looked at me like I asked them why they werent hatching barracudas.. Johnson outdoors donates around 5 million a year.. they want bass fisherman to go in the store and buy up all that bass fishing equiptment .. they dont care abt a few plastic jigs or hair jigs or 20 dollar rod and reel combo sales..
The head honcho biologist in central texas will tell you flat out, they have no idea what the crappie populations are in texas lakes but the assumption is that crappie breed faster than they can be caught.. tx lakes are too deep to electroshock, or seine.. as a texas crappie angler for over 25 years EVERY lake I fish has gone downhill.. the lakes are supposed to be so just a basic angler, with no advanced sonar can go out with thier kids and have a decent shot at catching some fish.. with folks going from spot to spot to spot and hitting the same spots on a lake repeatedly how can it not affect the fish,, I hope Texas doesnt let it completely go to [censored] before they follow suit and lower daily bag limits.. 10 fish per angler with an 11 inch size limit would be my vote.. also no more than 40 fish per guide boat. so if theres 4 anglers they get 10 each.,,. very rare you will have more than 4 crappie anglers on one boat.
Mississippi is not a rich state by any means.,,. they value the fact that they have amazing crappie fisheries and people come from all over the US for a chance at a 3 pound plus crappie.. Mississippi is smart to protect the fishery. With Texas having the 4th largest economy in the world, and our gubner traveling around the world to speak at economic forums to tell others how to run thier economy , I guess protecting the fisheries is not a high priority..

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