If there ever was a lake that needs the size limit lifted for a while to get some of the millions of undersize crappie out that one is it. I have fished it for years and don't keep small ones and have no desire to. But it is chocked full of them, there is an influx of bank fisherpeople that would thin them out and it would help the fishery in that lake.
They may have to monitor it fairly closely and reinstate it at some point and time but it would be a good thing for a while.
It is absolutely loaded with nutrients and forage fish, why wouldn't it be? There are plenty of 1-2# ones. But you have to wade through thousands of 7-8" ones in the process to get them.
Same thing with my pond when I built it I stocked it. Well due to work etc it wasn't fished. After I retired I started on it, you could catch bream all day long about 3-4" long and occasionally the size of you hand. I caught them out by the 5 gallon buckets and fed them to the hogs, fed to coons, herons etc. If I caught someone throwing one back they didn't fish anymore. I took almost a little over 5 years but the results were as plain as day. Now when you catch bream they are big as your hand, many over a pound and there has been some 1.5 pound ones caught.
You ever caught any stripers out of it? You won't catch many in an outing but when you do it will make two or three of what you catch out of Norman or most any other lake around here for that matter. You recon the nutrient rich water and abundant forage doesn't come into play with them also?well high rock may be a tad more complicated than your pond.
i have fished it for several decades and it has never been a trophy lake for much besides maybe cats. and it had unrestricted take out of panfish during most of that time.
I have caught some stripers but they were a mistake. i do not target them.
it looks like that limit is coming off so we'll see how big a change it makes in average crappie size. i am guessing none.
while they may take out the small ones , they will also kill the bigger ones that have to be released now.
Where do you see that the bigger ones have to be released?
I call a 7" one a small one.there is a minimum size limit now. those will no longer be protected.
they are" bigger ones" than those that need to be targeted and taken out but they will not be released.
they will eat a seven inch one just like they will a smaller one.
That is why they are a PITA. If at all possible I fish with bream or white perch. Later in the year if I am in a hurry I may have to use shad and they can swallow them. They will be gut hooked just about every time we catch them. But on the other hand I don't keep flatheads as good as they are to eat. But I'll keep those stripers in a skinny minute. LOL
I call a 7" one a small one.
Well it hasn't happened in the past 30 years of 8" minimum and the people with big degrees and I think it is worth a try also. Guess if they and I are wrong we will bow to your vast knowledge if we are wrong.
Give me your # then because I am already doing it, it is just aggravating having to wade through dozens and dozens of small ones in the process. Don't expect GPS coordinates though.yeah i am almost as knowledgeable on this stuff as you are on squirrel dogs. It's just what i know.
usually i can keep my mouth shut, but not always.
call me when you start catching slabs at the rock.
Give me your # then because I am already doing it, it is just aggravating having to wade through dozens and dozens of small ones in the process. Don't expect GPS coordinates though.
While we are on the subject of you keeping your mouth shut I recon the lower deer harvest is attributed to lower deer numbers from poaching, due the recent laws allowing night 'yote and hog hunting......................................right?