Releasing thos spawners.

Comment

Comment by Patrick "Bullworm" Olson on May 5, 2012 at 11:43pm

I only keep what me and my wife will eat for dinner that night. It is either 4 crappie at the 10" marker or 5 bluegill at the 9.5" mark. I keep no more than 4 fish total. could be a combination of the two as well.

Comment by Leo Nguyen on May 5, 2012 at 10:51pm

You guys got your fish sizes down. Over here, there's so much scattered reports, I couldn't keep the record straight of the fish sizes to release, or to hold. That's why I made my release range so huge, just to cover all the possible lack of fish size data. I always ended up with just 5 or 7 for the dinner table, rather than the 25 limit and beyond that I tend to haul during the summer and fall.

Comment by Dwayne Denison on May 5, 2012 at 10:35pm

way to go on the release. It is nice to see big fish released back in the water. One of our local lakes,has become a crappie powerhouse. They have a 25 fish limit. You can have 10 fish over 10" and 15 under 10". It has worked real well, for the crappie population

Comment by Patrick "Bullworm" Olson on May 5, 2012 at 10:27pm

Right on Jim!! 98% of my fish are released. Those that qualify for a meal are crappies that are no bigger than 10" and bluegill no bigger than 9.5". This is a crucial time of the year up here. These big slabs move in shallow when the water temps hit 53 degrees or warmer. They come up to feed and warm there eggs and prepare to spawn. Keeping fish right now is not a good idea if you want to keep your fishery in good shape. 

Jim, The area that I live in is a funny and sometimes touchy place to live if you are a fisherman like myself. This town of Bemidji has what I like to call a "fishing mafia"! I am friends with a majority of the guides now, and we all fish the same waters. Both big and small. We just don't tell each other. But, there are times that we have to meet up and talk and things can get weird. It's all in a good way but, it can be dramatic as well. I should try and write a better story about how it works and the different senarios that have come about!

Comment by Jim Gronaw on April 30, 2012 at 9:09pm

Excellent! The trend, even with some experienced panfishers, is to keep every big crappie they catch, thinking that the smaller ones will always recruit and 'get big'. Doesn't happen.

By releasing the high majority of these big fish, you guys will have quality fishing for a long time. The other secret is to just not tell anybody where this is at!

But you can tell me in a PM...ha-ha! Just kiddin'!