I got to thinking yesterday while fishing at lake bardwell. We are catching lots of small fish just under 10". Then it hit me over the years I have noticed this pattern in other lakes like Navarro Mills 4 years ago. We caught thounds of throw backs the next year after that we were catching thounds of big fish, I mean no need to measure kinda fish! And again on a few other lakes, same pattern. Is this a fluke or has other people heard of the 3 to 4 year cycles of lakes. I have heard TP&WD say something about this before.

Lol Joe Pool has had 9 3/4 inch crappie for years! Haha

I gotta say, this has been a great year for big fish. I have only had one fish to even measure. my son caught a 16" female at ray hubbard today and I caught 8 males between 12 to 14".

The OLE JP SPECIAL... Caught way too many of those

It not a fluke......the 10" limit should help off set some of the natural cycles. TP&WD have some info on this.

Makes sense to me, about 7 years ago I caught two fish over three pounds in a 2 month period. Since then the closest I have been is 2.5 on the same lake, never really had a problem with dinks on tawakoni though I rarely have to measure a fish.

Thanks guys

IMHO this time of year when you see this no matter the lake along with a brim or 2 .....
its a very very sad event for the bank people ....
its typically the sign showing the big ones the door to go back home the party is over .....
now please dont misunderstand its possible there was a very very good spawn last year at that lake ....
but if your samples come from shallow water this time of year its most likely the "stop" sign for the big spawners .....
and then there is the culling of "keepers" thrown in ....
making the entire thing somewhat complicated ....
i had this conversation with 2 people just yeaterday .....
and a far more educated crappie guy had the exact same synopsis of this trend in the spring .....

This is a bit off topic but, I'd like to see a 12" min on all TX lakes. Look at Grenada this past weekend. YOu had to catch 14 fish weighing an average of 2.43 lbs each to win that tournament and Grenada has a 12" minimum and 20 fish per day per man not to exceed 50 per boat reagardless of how many on it. And then look at the results!

Thanks Ketchn, I am seeing this trend in shallow water. But it was January - May

12 inches and a 15 limit is the proper math in my humble opinion
25 is overkill for sure ....10 is small ......
take bream if ya want smaller fish ....
and the fillets off 12 inch or better fish are tremendous
we discussed this just the other day and said hey ....
did we ever keep a full limit of anything ?
I said yeah I did ....5 trout last winter ...ROFLMAO

This subject is very interesting to me. In my opinion, creel and size limits should be set per lake based on many factors including: grow rates, population size, predation, angling pressure, etc.

When establishing length limits, biologist consider growth rates. The 12" rule might be effective on some of our more fertile TX lakes where a 2-3 year old averages 12". However, it would probably not be effective state wide due to the varying growth rates on our various water bodies. In Mississipi, that is a Grenada rule and not a statewide rule. We fished Columbus which is a river not far from Grenada and I believe the minimum there was 10".

A 12" fish on Grenada is a much younger fish than a 12" fish on most Texas lakes. I believe the average 10" crappie in TX is a 2-3 year old. Crappie have a life span of approximately 4-7 years.

In Oklahoma, they have a 37 fish limit no minimum size but lakes can vary from the state minimum. (i.e. Texoma 10" minimum, Eufaula no minimum or perhaps 9", and one lake I fish has an 8" minimum because there are so many the biologist want you to harvest) Also, some lakes have stunted crappie populations because they have too many crappie. The Oklahoma Wildlife department stocked Saugeyes because they eat a certain size crappie (3-5") but leave the crappie alone after they reach 5" plus.

Another thought, (a bit of irony) because two lakes that I believe a 12" minimum might work would be LOP and Fork. However, in the winter you have to keep the first 25 you catch regardless of size. Fork showed it can produce some monsters. It is hard to compete with the fab four lakes in the arch of slabs in Mississippi but get away from there and the weights at lake Fork were mighty impressive.

This article touches on some of the original population fluctuation question

http://www.ms-sportsman.com/details.php?id=322

Here is a excerpt and link to an interesting TPWD article:

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_br_t3200_178.pdf

In lakes with low bass populations, crappie often
overpopulate and become stunted. For crappie to reach larger sizes, populations must experience high total mortality to keep their numbers within the carrying capacity of their habitat. Crappie populations typically exhibit high rates of mortality due to natural causes, but only moderate levels of mortality due to angler harvest. These fac�tors allow for generous harvest regulations in most areas

My father-in-law always tells me more crappie die of old age than are ever caught. I'm going with that theory.

The undeniable fecundity of crappie make it implausible to discuss increased restrictions.

I only manage to catch bunches of them every now and then and when I do happen to luck into them I let most of them go and only keep half a dozen for the frying pan.

that information is great ....
i totally agree some lakes fish grow slower .
brings up something i thought about ....
how many actually do die of old age .....?
i have heard they have a short life span ....
one fish last year a little over 2 looked ancient to me ....
and another larger thin fish i ketcht at another lake resembled it also .....
both seemd kinda bigheaded like a stunted fish but were long big fish ....just no body weight on them ......
great read sir ....