i was fishing at lake stamford last weekend, and an older gentelman showed up and fished the spot next to me.
I couldnt help but notice he was keeping 8-9" crappie.
I was tempted to call the warden, but as i was leaving the lake i saw a warden pulling in.

i wonder if he was busted. anyone hear anything?

The older gentleman might not have known there was a size limit.

My older gentleman customer yesterday didn't. He remebered how it use to be, no size limit and no possession limits on them (for real).

So he might not have known.

Did you warn him?

Proabbly telling him Catch and Release is a good practice would have been wasted breath with him (at any size).

I don't consider myself old , and I certainly remember when
there was not size or bag limit on crappie. We would judge them
by thickeness not lenghth.


MO

He was measuring them using some nothes someone had carved into the banaster. I watched him measure one that looked to be round 8". he said " just enough", and i said " you might wanna remeasure that", but he just tossed it in his basket.

me and my buddy would just shake our heads everytime he pulled one out, that was clearly less than 10.

he had a basket full, none of which were legal. lol

Well then, maybe the game warden gave him a good lesson on how to measure fish.

You did what you can do (other than perhaps show him how to properly measure fish).

That is a good reason to fish away (far away) from all the other folks.

i have seen countless number of people keep crappie as small as 7 - 8 inches i want to say something but they probably wouldnt listen anyway (someone telling them to throwback there catch)

Man, I'm listening to you. So will they, are at least they need to hear it from you, even if they don't choose to hear what you are saying.

You owe it to yourself, and for them and for the sport of fishing. Your voice (especially when in the right) is kind of like voting. Sometimes that is all you have to try and make things right.

Give it your best effort to make things right. Don't be confrontational, just tell them the facts and try to help them do the right thing.

what good is a crappie that small anyway...unless you are a well trained heart surgeon with a very small knife you can't get enough meat off a crappie that small to justify the hassle in cleaning it.

Not everywhere has the same size requirements. Where I was raised the limit was 8" just because those were colder lakes. You get pretty trained on how to fillet the ones you can read a newspaper through. I'd like to think I could get a couple slabs off a minner lol. Still not right keeping under the limit.

you know what ur right texas guide fishing -mark i am going to tell them next time i never thought of it like that

I agree with you on that

The JP in Snyder has teamed with our local Game Warden the last few years in teaching folks how to measure fish. She charges them $200 per fish for undersize or over the limit.......the FIRST time. Goes to $400 next time. A guy from Lubbock and his brother got caught 3 times 3 years ago and left Scurry County a little over $4800 in fines!!!

Like Ron White says "You can't fix stupid!"

As a post note, our Warden is pretty cool. Finds a guy that has his little boy out and they have a slightly undersized fish because the boy caught it, he will just warn them, congratulate the boy, and have them turn it back. But when it comes to stupid folks who keep everything they catch.....it gets rough (and expensive)

You got that right,

We need to take responsibilty and be Stewards of the Sport of Fishing. We all need to take ownership of our sport and support the betterment for it, not just today but for the furture.

If you see a wrong, try your best to fix it.

Great post

My 2 cents. I have found that most folks are wanting to follow the rules and a quick word usually is receieved gratefully. Like Mark said at least you can try if you see them messing up.