Don’t chase stories

To many fishermen run from lake to lake chasing stories they hear or read about. Pick out a good crappie lake (Most are if you learn them) and build of find some brushpiles.

Lewisville is a good example. It can be tough if you don’t know where to fish. My partners and I have over 150 brushpiles there and almost always catch good stringers of fish.

We normally average about 70-80 fish per 4 hour trip. Our worst trip this summer produced 30 with around 20 being keepers. (We had to quit at 9:15 due to a battery problem)

Don’t take more fish than you need. We observe a 11” minimum for the first 10 in the box, 11.5” for the next 10 and 12” after that. Most we throw back anyway.

Sundays trip with Rick produced 111 caught, 50+ legal fish, none kept. Quit at noon due to the heat.

Good advice!

That is the best advice one can receive... Thanks for posting.

Ernest you hit the nail on the head, I see it so much. guys chasing fish from other peoples stories. And most of the time it doesn’t work out for them .
For me the fun is in putting in the work with scanning and learning the whole lake. Once you catch some in a few places putting the pieces of the puzzle togather as to why those fish were In those spots.

Things change so fast sometimes that what someone did last weekend doesn't have much to do with today anyway.
I went Saturday morning at had a poor day caught 10 keepers in 4 hours of fishing.
I got up Sunday and loaded the boat in just a couple of hours.
I was catching a fish as soon as my jig hit the brush.
Then about 10:00 the wind shifted to out of the west and they turned off. I mean not another bite.
If someone showed up at 10:00 to fish, they would have had a poor day.

Your logic cannot be disputed, thank you for the info.

Agreed and I like what you said about "take what you need". I see so many times when guys get a one-man or two-man limit and then give away the fish at the boat ramp or a neighbor because they already have a freezer full of fish or don't like to clean/eat them.

I take a few 11" ones for my Mom and me and my wife to eat as needed. I don't need the pics/videos of dozens of fish to make it a great trip!!!

We caught 65 today, kept none. Mosting looking for new spots, stopping here and there,
having fun. Jim

Although this is great advice for someone that get to fish as much as some folks I say the limit is set at 25 and it’s up to each individual as to what they keep within the law.
What makes you happy is just that and not what the next man may feel means anything....
Be happy and catch crappie if you can.....

I agree to a point most crappie I caught on my lakes out west were 11 and half or better here sometimes 10 from all the pressure will make a fish fry for family but I hate cleaning small fish.

With that being said I used to fish Lewisville only and I dont think it is as healthy as it was 13 years ago.

Dad always kept every legal fish he could. We had bags of crappie filets in the freezer coming out our ears, so it was a "learned' response for me. It wasn't till I retired and moved to Lake Fork that I learned to throw fish back. That, and the fact that we have to keep all out fish in the winter. No need to keep them the rest of the year unless a big fish fry was planned.