DANGIT and we almost had this thing figured out. haha

We all benefit in the long run with catch and release. Now about those cormorants. I am seeing more every year-lots more. A while back I went to a 50 acre pond to fish, and it was almost solid with the things.

I propose to make it illegal to use nets ( cast net or gill nets ) to catch baits: shads or minnows. I saw people netting so much shads or minnows, more than they can ever use in their lifetime. They are depleting the very food source of our beloved game fishes: crappies, sandies, hybrids, striper, bass, etc.

Any one agrees with me?

cormorants ....cause me to rant

YEP, Every time I catch a 5+lb bass, I benefit from catch and release...That said, they are mighty tasty grilled on the half shell that size!!

It would appear that a good number of the 10% already practice some form of catch and release, at least over the amount necessary to eat a good fresh meal of crappie. It would ALSO appear that Okiebob DOESN'T include enough fish in his diet!

Change the regs to increase the crappie size?? OK, Just eliminate the minimum size limit...and the creel limit. Yea, for a while a person will catch and keep ALL THEY CAN, but after they get finished cleaning them and eating them a few times, they will begin to keep ONLY what they need for dinner...I can name many folks that have graduated from catchem all...to all I CARE to clean is enough for dinner...

Besides there are many fishermen that only fish a couple of times a year. They end up bringing the entire family, in-laws, etc., in order to catch enough crappie to last throughout the year, basically they fill their freezers, and they go away. Fishermen like us catch many more crappie per year than they do, most of us fish year round for fun, relaxation, challenge, etc.. Even using self imposed limits, we will still keep more than the aforementioned "fishing family". Some will always abuse any given situation, others will under use any situation...it evens out in the end.

BTW, those "unders" are generally younger age classes growing up (and not stunted fish), so we apparently have a healthy crappie populations in many lakes with high undersized populations...and accordingly no need to reduce creel limits or raise minimum size limits. I once heard a biologist comment that we needed to take more females during the spawn and toss the males back if we wanted to improve our crappie resources in a lake... Just saying

Check out the last page of the crappienow.com January article titled Florida Biologist Answer Crappie Questions. Interesting read.

Yes, that was interesting...

Good read....

I checked it out the link. Here a biologist is saying that customizing crappie limits on a lake by lake basis can improve a fishery and can be tailored for different results. It runs counter to the spirit of most posts on this thread that suggest there is nothing anglers could ever do to impact the size or population of crappie on any lake.

My Dancing in the Rain lessons start at 8:00 a.m. and will run a full two days. I hope to graduate late Thursday afternoon.

Dutch, I think I'd pay a little just to watch! When you going to show us?

I agree with Jigman...Pics Please!

The biologist stated what I have been stating all along.

First you need to test each lake to determine if a problem exists and the nature of the problem.

Then you need to devise a lake by lake solution. One size fits all solutions do not work when it comes to lakes.

But that costs money to conduct the tests on an annual or semi-annual basis and this state is not willing to adequately fund Fish and Wildlife to conduct these types of tests. So it will never happen.

Hopefully this thread has allow a few to realize they do not need to take home limits every fishing trip to still have fun fishing. If so it has been a worth while discussion. If not it has still been a fun discussion, which still makes it worthwhile in MHO.