Fork Report!!!

Fished part of a group trip Clay Gann put together with Jerry Hancock as well and the 3 of us managed to get everybody on some crappie and 145 hit the cleaning table at the end of the day! Kinda my same old broken record report for this time of year but like has been most trips the fish bit better as the day went on. I used 1/8 hand ties on Limits Tackle heads in chart/white and shad colored tipped with a minnow all day long. Caught fish from 18-28' of water most were 12-16' down suspended on timber. Did catch a few to start the day off brush and laydowns but we quickly moved to timber once everybody got the hang of Livescope! My fall is pretty packed between ACT, Crappie Masters, Crappie USA, and the Crappie Expo in Branson but I have some weekend and weekday availability in Sept and I think maybe one weekend day available in Oct. Sept and Oct are awesome months for Fork and Palestine. Fork I will focus on timber but Palestine we could do brush, timber, and even some docks. Let me know if you wanna go get a mes for your next fish fry!

Slew

What a haul!

Wow, great job fellas.

Good job !

#loweringlakelevelbycatchingcrappie

Nice post and fish. Good job.

The crappie limits need to be lowered,...

I’d like to see what 15 fish with a 12” limit would do for a lake. I don’t feel that limits make much of a difference though. Maybe 5 years from now I will feel differently about it though.

50 fish for two people is 100 fillets, seems excessive to me. With new fishing techniques taking Crappie
is much easier than before. Especially picking off the big ones. What if bass fisherman were taking out
50 bass a day to eat,..?? 15x12 would be a good start, 3-4 for tournaments minimum 12",....
I see more people crappie fishing now with improved electronics, dont wait until they are all gone to change
the rules.

Crappie populations are cyclic or erratic in abundance
and size distribution. When a strong year class develops
in a lake, it can dominate the population for several years.
Reproduction is limited and survival of young crappie is
low until the dominant year class has been thinned out
or environmental and hydrological conditions again be-
come favorable for survival of young crappie. This pat-
tern usually results in two to three years of good fishing
followed by two to three years of fair to poor fishing.
The dominant year class may survive longer with more stringent regulations


From TPW

50 per person? What am I missing here?

Nope. 25 per person.

This was before Down image, side image, 360*, spotlock, jog, and livescope.

As much as I like to eat crappie, I have to agree with you Jim. I think that what Slew suggested is reasonable. Fifteen crappie with a 12” (or even a 10” limit) would still be a good catch. Nothing to prevent you from throwing them back in. I know that guides make their livings on results, I don’t know what kind of impact that
would have. Another facet is that some guys can only fish one or two days a month, (I used to be that guy), and that probably needs addressing. At this point though, I think TPWD is gonna do what they want, I know they have public meetings now and then to discuss changes, but how often do they actually listen ?

There are plenty of Crappie to go around.

I have no issues with 25 and 10".

This conversation has come up over the last few years since Livescope hit the market and I have not personally seen a difference in the Crappie fishing or the crappie being caught. It seems to be the same as it has always been.

TPWD are the ones that set the rules for the State and if they decide to change it then so be it.

If you get out twice a month that really isn't much.

If you go with a Guide again that is one trip.

I've seen plenty of fisherman go out and catch and release. If we are stocked up we catch and release.

I haven't had a double limit since April.

We got out on the lake in our boat last week for the first time since April. We had 6 keepers.

I'd like to get a double limit and get the freezer stocked up again.

I don't think there are any fisherman that want to see the Crappie population decimated in anyway.

There are plenty of Crappie and to me it is no different then hunting deer and keeping the deer population in check.

I'm sure if TPWD sees a downward trend they will make any necessary changes.

Tight Lines!

There are plenty of Crappie now,.....

The way I read it , there were 3 guides , 3 boats, number of clients not specified.


Nice haul


MO

We need to stop the trend of bass fisherman switching to crappie.

I was watching a bass boat with 3 grown men standing in the bow, shoulder to shoulder watching the livescope.

I thought to my self , I never want to be that crowded fishing.

MO

what percentage of regular guy and gal anglers have 4,000 electronics?

Come to LOP in the winter and it looks like 95 percent have those electronics

Me being a bit newer to the game, learning from this site, heck I've fished with Slewfoot, I'll trust in what you guys say limits should be. I stopped keeping fish since I have well enough in the freezer and we're eating through them, enjoying them, but 25 fish every trip is too much for my family's liking, that's why I don't keep fish near as much as I did starting out last year when I bought my boat and electronics.
Now I'm worried all the crappie are going to be gone!

They're not going anywhere! For every fish we catch we see dozens that wont bite or swim off. Keep what you need and throw the rest back! They did a study years ago at Palestine and we turned in several fish over 2 pounds and they all came back 3 years old I believe. I'm not sure how accurate the study was or my memory of it for that matter but I remember thinking it didn't seem like very long to get that size. Would be cool if Tx has some trophy crappie lakes like they do bass but I'm no biologist just an armchair QB. If something get's out of wack they'll adjust it I hope.

Slew

They have been catching limits of crappie from Fork for 40 years and its still a top crappie fishing lake in the nation. As said above, for every fish you catch, there are a dozen that won't bite

What I would like to see is a limit on fish over 16"..one per day. Those fish from 10" to 14" are the best eating fish...let the big ones that are sexually mature go.

Several yrs ago, we collected 24 crappie over 2 lbs from Fork at a couple tournaments. Bill Muntz, Fin and Bones Taxidermy, made a couple stringer mounts of those fish. Bill aged the fish using the scale method and all fell in the 7-9 yr old range. My guess is it takes a little longer than 3 yrs to reach 2 lbs.

And is there a maximum size based on genetics? Since these fish were all over 6 yrs old, I tend to think once they achieve a certain size, the growth rate falls back to almost zero. Once optimum size is reached, size probably fluctuates based on water fertility for the year.

I don't think overall populations are being hurt by new electronics near as much as yearly water conditions affecting spawn survival rate. But I have no "scientific" proof of anything. Just some observations for about 60+ years.