Really conflicted here...

When livescope first came out I thought it would not negatively impact the crappie population. After using it for a few months
I'm not so sure. It's a wonderful tool to increase your fishing pleasure but will also make it easier to catch more. Got to release a lot of them.

When I grew up there was no size or quantity limit on sandbass or crappie. We caught a lot of fish but not many over 10".
When the daily bag limit of 25 and 10" minimum length was put in effect Fishermen screamed bloody murder. Couldn't catch 25 that
size they said, fishing was ruined. (And who ever said you had to limit out to have a good day?)

After a couple of years went by and suddenly they were catching limits of big fish, over 10" the screaming died down.
I would like to see the size limit increased and the daily bag limit reduced. 11" and 15 per person would be a good start.

My boat limit is 12" now, 10 max per person, event or not. (may impose a boat limit of 20, thinking that way)
Most fish I catch are released. I keep around 5 per week to eat fresh. Rarely freeze any.
If my passenger wants to keep some I don't care as long as they follow boat guidelines.

Just my opinion for what it's worth.

What we need for consumption is a good guide line.

If you only fish once a month, then a limit of 25 might be what will be eaten within that month. If you fish 2-3 days a week, there's really no need to keep limits of 25 every trip. If you only fish April thru June for crappie, then a few limits won't hurt any fishery. Personally, I don't need 50 bags of fillets in the freezer.

Those that get to fish any time they want and those who can only go when not working, see this issue very differently. When I could only fish on days off, the weather or fish didn't cooperate about 50% of the time. When things did come together, I enjoyed catching a limit of fish, which didn't happen very often.

Livescope may have an effect on fish populations; but that won't happen till the majority of people acquire Livescope and actually know how to use it effectively.

On a side note, there's a hybrid/striper guide on Lake Belton that fishes catch and release only ever since he started over 10 yrs ago. Has no problem booking trips all year.

I'm all for your suggestion. I fish on Belton and rarely keep one under 11". The amount of filet you get from a 10" is so much less. Must admit, I will never hurt the population. I think, without any concrete evidence, that hybrids have hurt the population more than fishermen.

Not to bash on the guides because they need to make a living but the average fisherman isn't going to deplete the population for the most part. In my opinion, it's the guide taking 3-4 clients 7 days a week and limiting out every time if it may be easier with Livescope. 4 persons = 100 fish or 700 fish a week. If they fish 300 days a year, that's 30,000 fish a year.
For one guide.

That's a lot of fish.

Of course, they won't be able to do that every day but it's definitely a consideration.

I agree. I have kept a calendar/spreadsheet for the last 5 years since we started Crappie fishing as our fish of choice.
We used to bass fish and that got to be too much work for an old guy, lol. Now we crappie fish at Fork 3-4 times a week weather permitting,
and catch and release 99%. I looked at the amount of fish we could have kept and it's in the thousands. I feel good about
letting them go...oh we'll catch a few for some of the elders that live in our RV park, small price to pay for year round security.
One thing I'd like to see is the Game Wardens get more involved in checking crappie fisherman for size and quantity limits.
They are very keen on bass size and quantity, and monitor the tournaments like hawks, but no so much interest in Crappie fishing...

Ernest x2 sorta we were discuccn this month or so, I say maybe 11in. & 20 per day . this time of year I rarely put much of a dent in em, still learning my OLD 1198c ha. Yep iam getting up there too, remember fishing with the parents lots of time on the 4th. Used to clean sandies & crappie for hours,lol Good memories. Several years ago in the spring I wade fished then and loaded the freeze. Was limiting 2/3 times a week. Got curious just how many were in da freeze. Well it was north of 300. do like eating them. Sorry to ramble. MAYBE TPWD WOULD HAVE A PUBLIC MEETING, AND FOLKS CAN ATTEND & COMMENT, OR EMAIL OPIONS JUST THINKIN!!! OUR POP. IN n. TX AIN'T GETTING SMALLER!!

I won't keep one under 11" (not imposing that on anybody) and there's been surveys done and fisherman if following the current laws don't affect crappie population on a lake unless several are fishn several times a week and limiting out every time... And as we all know you just might get to fish several times a week but that limit ain't gonna happen every trip....
I supply fish to several family members that are not fortunate enough to be able to go catch crappie so I keep several limits a year but only get to fish maybe once a week.....

I agree with Ernest totally. I would also go for 11"/ 15 limit. Simiar presonal jabits and boat rules already. I am about to start kayak guiding again and I will focus on teaching, not counting numbers.

Tight lines, PP

Nailed it! This is where the most damage is done. I too am not bashing guides but this to me is where the problem with overharvesting comes from. I tend to keep most keepers I catch now as I have in laws, grandparents, relatives who are disabled and can't go as well as family members on my in laws side that love fish. This winter in the creeks (one really) there were anywhere from 1-4 guides a day in there keeping limits of 50-75 fish each trip.. talk about working over an area. In my opinion, there are too many variables to know what the magic number is to say this amount is hurting the population and I don't believe we will ever truly know.

What if they lowered the limit when fishing with a guide.

Great Thread with a lot of good advice!

It would help no doubt. I think what Ernest is doing should be done more.

The thing is that the guides who depend on the resource to earn their living should self impose limits in order to maintain the resource. if - big if - they guide 7 days a week and are able to limit most days, they should self impose their own restrictions. I have little doubt that it would hurt their business. If the guide isn't able to limit most days, then maybe they go by state guidelines. The biggest hiccup here, I think, is that pictures of stringers of fish sell more guide trips. Whereas, a picture of a big fish, gets a "thumbs up".

I think a good-compromise would be 15 per day but keep the minimum at 10”. I personally do not like to keep and clean more than 10-12. Boat rules are a different thing. If the captain says x you do x and say thanks.

The only adjustment I can remember is taking away a guide limit which was a very long time ago. However, I just get the feeling there are many more guides working since the panoptix came out just based on the empirical fact a lot more people seem to be putting their name out there.

I have been saying for years needs to be 20 per day and 11 inch min. but I would not mind the 15

I stopped keeping any crappie about this time last year. We buy all our fish now at Cosco. I understand that one guy not keeping crappie has no impact on the population, but you gotta start somewhere...…...

Maybe if the limit were lowered to 15, I would get to brag about limiting out some day!

We went out Tuesday and brought home 20 (2 guys fishing) and threw back about that many. Only about 5 or 6 of those fish would have made 12".

Not everybody that is fishing knows when, where or how to load the boat, so only a small percentage of the people on the lake are contributing to the problem being discussed here and most of us only get to fish one day a week or less.

Even the twenty or so 9 7/8"s were fun to catch, and they will be there for someone else to catch.

Wayne

I believe that CAT "Crappie Anglers of Texas" have or at least attempted (not sure how it has worked out as I haven't followed them this year) to release all fish after weigh in. Independent planning like that as well as what Ernest is implementing on his vessel is a choice and a good choice at that in my opinion.
"Livescope has made me a better angler"
shut-up-and-fish - 2019

If I even think I may need to measure a fish it goes back without a 2nd thought. I’m retired and can fish when I want most of the time but this past few months the river has stayed flooded so have been fishing less because of long drives to places to fish. My last three trips only yielded about 40 good crappie but they are still there for the next person. Once the freezer starts getting low I’ll start keeping a few but I’m happy if bring home enough for a mess for me and the wife. I like crappie but when it comes to eating me and the wife and family members want a few good blue cats.
I most crappie fish because it’s fun to catch them.

Agree with what KG said.

IMO, I don't believe even a few guides/people taking several limits every day will have any real impact on the crappie population of a 25,000+ acre lake over the long haul. Crappie are very prolific breeders, they'll keep replenishing. That being said, I applaud any guide who wants to self impose a lower limit, but the average weekend warrior fishing a few days a month shouldn't feel guilty about keeping a limit when he can get it. I personally stop keeping after I have a few bags in the freezer, can only eat so many.

Sound too me every time one of these type threads get started those that struggle to catch crappie want everyone else to not be able to keep their legal limit of 25 crappie.....
Do something different and you'll see there's plenty of crappie in almost all of these lakes.....
You wanna catch them? Well put the work in, learn what they prefer and give it to them....

I think some of you have a good idea but you need to remember this, 90-95% of fishermen don't catch a limit of crappie once a month much less once a day 3-5 days a week. The crappie guys on this forum primarily are the elite. The biologists will tell you it is nearly impossible to fish out a lake of any size especially the crappie. How many of you have seen a decline in the numbers and size of the crappie in any of the lakes you fish? Like another post on this thread, I have several families that ask me for fish, some are just not capable of going fishing and they don't have the money to go to a fish market & buy fresh fish. Some don't the first thing about fishing but love to eat them. I am glad the I have the ability to help them out when I can, so as a result I clean as many legal crappie as I can.

Another way to look at it is that a lot of people that fish with guides will probably only fish that one time with them the entire year. They will pay the exact same fee as every one else for their fishing license for the year and if they are lucky they will harvest 25 crappie for the entire year. That doesn't seem too unreasonable. And guides don't even get to harvest their limits on the days they are working..On top of that guides are frequently getting more people that otherwise wouldn't be exposed to the sport we all love and alot of times getting kids hooked on fishing. If there is one thing livescope has taught me it's that it is highly unlikely any person will ever touch the crappie population on my home lake. Have made it a point to fish a new area every week since getting livescope and it is absolutely unbelievable how many crappie live in submerged timber. Have come to realize that all the fish we were catching on brush piles were probably just lost. Also worth noting there are other predators out there like big cats, bass, hybrids and comarants that are eating our precious crappie every day of the year that probably do way more damage than we do.

It’s obvious that the livescope has changed fishing. I’ve gone out and caught many crappie as of late on a very flooded lake that I know I wouldn’t have caught more than 10 without the livescope. It’s really crazy. With that being said, I’m mainly for letting the big fish back.

Speaking of comrads, what's their purpose and why are they protected?

There's very big flocks of them on every lake I've fished, the laws on comrades will be something that we all need to push to change instead of senselessly try'n to change the current laws on crappie

Just my opinion as ole Richard Gene would say.....

“Speaking of comrads, what's their purpose and why are they protected?”

So how did we start talking about the Russians? I thought we were talking about Cormorants?

For those that get to fish only once or twice a year I believe the current limit seems appropriate. For those of us that are blessed to fish more often I don’t feel comfortable suggesting the limit be reduced effecting the one or two timers. Nor am I in favor of developing a culture as some have done that fish for other type of fish, were you are chastised for keeping that type of fish to eat. We all need to be responsible for protecting the fishery no matter what type we fish for.

I would hope that TPWD does enough population surveys to adjust size and bag limit if appropriate. But crappie and sand bass I think are more like the feral hog population. You just can’t harvest enough of them to dwindle their numbers too far.

Many years ago, during a discussion like this, I remember reading a comment from someone who had spoken to some game wardens or some wildlife expert, can’t remember which. But the take away I clearly remember was that they said less than 50% of crappie and sand bass are caught in any given year on any body of water, so the populations are actually increasing from year to year.

Time will tell if Livescope flips the script when it gets adopted by the masses, if it ever does.

You couldn’t catch all of the fish out of a 30,000 acre lake. Not even if you tried.

i find it should be different for different lakes as different lakes produce different amounts at spawn.Like Lewisville and Levon produce a huge amount of fish each year where like Grapevine does not. i fish about 5 days a week and only limit out about 4 times a year.10 to 15 would be the norm i catch in a day and many 0 days also i normally never keep any under 11". just not enough meat on a 10" Crappie. and a lot of times i will throw back those 15" spawners.just hate to kill that many. id like to see the limit go to 15 and size to 11" state wide,that could only help the size and population. yes a lot of times you would limit out in 30 min but you can always cull them or just the wonderful fun of catch and release.

So here's my concern. First, as a post stated earlier that guides catch 100/day, 700/ week is over 210,000 a year. Not! That's a range of 30K - 36K crappie per year, still a lot, but a big difference from 210K.

Also, asking guides to lower the limit to 15 fish. When I hire a guide, it's to put fish in the freezer. I know how to fish but do not have a boat, so an instructional trip on electronics is out of the question for me and if guides lowers their limits to 15 and charges the same price (approx $300/half day), then that too will be out of the question. I love crappie, but not at $20/ea, no sir.

I think we have to use our own judgement and common sense. I don't think there's a need to fish everyday and limit out just to have a freezer full of fish. If you fish 1-2 times a month like i do, then I don't think a limit of 25 will hurt the crappie population (even if you catch your limit). Just my

You need to check your math. 100 fish per day for 300 days per year is 30,000 crappie. That’s still a significant number of fish, but it’s 180,000 less than what you had stated.

The good news is that there will be an extra 180,000 fish swimming around now.

LOL...good catch.
At any rate, it's a lot of fish and that's just for one guide.

PS. I edited my original post numbers

L......O......L.... Well however you spell that silly birds silly name it's still silly they are protected.....
I've seen some eat crappie over 10 inches...... they are trash.....

Well just so y'all know I went and iced down 25 thick beautiful crappie 11 to 13 1/2" today......

That wind was some kinda terrible...... and my crazy camera keep over temping.....

Go get you some.....

I didn't hurt the population today for sure. Two of us caught and released 12 crappie today before giving up at 10:30 because of the wind.

Does anybody else think an 11" in crappie is perfect eating size? My wife and I can only eat 5 or 6 fish so that's all we keep when we go out, but big ones go back for me. I find the smaller keepers to be a good thickness of filet, that crisps up better. I don't like a big thick filet that's all mushy from these hot water texas fish

x2 Good judgement. If I THINK I need to measure, fish goes in lake. Also agree why I would go with a guide,1or 2 times yr.To get a limit for stosk the freezer. Maybe make size limit 11in. Keep # at 25. EVERYONE wants to catch Big cpappie, bass big bucks big boo#@$^^ woops carried away. My point is it's human nature. YOU don't have too keep biguns.

I personally am good with the limit where it is now, but that is me. I normally do not keep many, but the last few trips have as I am feeding a 100 people for one of my wounded warrior events, but other than that, my wife does not eat them, nor my son, so it is just me. I do fish several times a week, but except for right now while building my stock for this event, I let them go. I do not want to see the limits moved down. I do see it as the responsibility of every person fishing to uphold the law, to include stepping in when someone is not. I have had to do that with deer hunting before and I have called the Game Warden on myself as if I do not follow the law (knowingly or unknowingly) I am wrong. The laws are there for a reason, not just to get us into trouble.

Since quite a few are going to post opinions, here’s mine. I’m going to trust biologists much more than some of y’all. Sorry. Those people get paid to study this stuff, and to do surveys to collect data.

I believe that if someone wants to say large fish will be thinned out, that’s possible. I believe one of the bets things for the population is to take fish out of the water. Read the studies. The habitat can only support so much.

I’m not sure how many of you deer hunt. Same theory. In some places, such as the place I hunt, the biologists wants us to take more and more doe. They are trying to make sure there are not too many deer for the land to support in a good fashion. The more deer that are removed, removes some competition for the ones that are left. It keeps the herd healthy.

That being said, I didn’t keep any today.

After thinking about it for awhile I agree the state biologists will monitor the limits and take care of the future. I will personally continue to release most of the fish I catch but leave it up to the individual fishermen to keep legal fish if they wish.

I imposed the 11" minimum on myself several years ago so no issue there. I realize guides have to make a living but I feel the decline in crappie size on a certain lake in this area can be attributed to a guide service that runs multiple boats and posts pics with huge limits of fish almost weekly. Again, not knocking someone for trying to make a living but this dude acts like he owns the lake.