Crappie, 10-7

[Heretolearn]

14 hours ago, Walcrabass said:

TO ALL,

 

  So...............  there seems to be a lot of talk about water clarity..............

I was not aware that water clarity stunted the growth of Crappie ?? !!!!  Good information !!!!!!!!!!

What I was thinking was that if it were ILLEGAL to remove them from the lake unless there were a longer length than 10" then we would have bigger fish !!! I guess I am going to have to re-think my idea huh ????

Leave the hogs in the pen when they reach 200 pounds, keep feeding them, they get bigger. Take them to the meat processor, they don't. 

Your friend in the food business,

Walcrabass

Indirectly it probably does secondary to less fertility and less baitfish + baitfish can be found and eaten easier at a smaller size compared to it's nearby lakes - Pomme and Truman where larger crappie are caught regularly and have a lower length limit.  A hog will only grow if it can eat enough to grow.  Increase biomass of eaters without increasing food is not the recipe for more consistent and bigger crappie.  If fertility of the water and clarity were equal, we probably would not have such a long and enjoyable thread about this.  Truman, where the biggest crappie come from, also has more cover.   Pomme and Stockton seem pretty close on this variable.  I am sure there are other variables as well.

[Heretolearn]

14 hours ago, Walcrabass said:

TO ALL,

 

  So...............  there seems to be a lot of talk about water clarity..............

I was not aware that water clarity stunted the growth of Crappie ?? !!!!  Good information !!!!!!!!!!

What I was thinking was that if it were ILLEGAL to remove them from the lake unless there were a longer length than 10" then we would have bigger fish !!! I guess I am going to have to re-think my idea huh ????

Leave the hogs in the pen when they reach 200 pounds, keep feeding them, they get bigger. Take them to the meat processor, they don't. 

Your friend in the food business,

Walcrabass

Indirectly it probably does secondary to less fertility and less baitfish + baitfish can be found and eaten easier at a smaller size compared to it's nearby lakes - Pomme and Truman where larger crappie are caught regularly and have a lower length limit.  A hog will only grow if it can eat enough to grow.  Increase biomass of eaters without increasing food is not the recipe for more consistent and bigger crappie.  If fertility of the water and clarity were equal, we probably would not have such a long and enjoyable thread about this.  Truman, where the biggest crappie come from, also has more cover.   Pomme and Stockton seem pretty close on this variable.  I am sure there are other variables as well.   Cover and feed source seem to be much more important that length limit locally.

For clarity, I am not a fishery biologist and I fish mainly Pomme and Stockton.  My observation is that Pomme has far more shad than Stockton and the few times that I have been to Truman, I note more schools of shad than I do on Stockton.  Hopefully someone with real numbers will chime and prove or disprove this theory.