Waskas Crappies

[EYEHUNTER10]

sorry

[Fisher Dave]

Well .. if you keep catching those hundred crappies to keep that one 12" fish... your never going to have a 14" to catch either.

There are a lot more factors to the size of fish than harvest.. keep in mind crappies average a life span of 5 years with the occasional crappie living a year or 2 longer, but rare. If there is a very srong year class of 9" crappies now, they will be bigger the next couple years.

I dont mean to be rude.. but a limit(10) of crappies at 9" feeds myself, my fiance, and my 4 year old son just about right... this doesnt mean I am stocking my freezer, it means I like to eat fish, and I bought my license so I am allowed to harvest fish within the limits of the current regulations to eat.. and I will continue to do so when I choose to keep some fish on occasion.

As for gas at $5 a gallon? I will sell you as much as you want for $5/gallon for your truck, boat, heating fuel, etc.. the profit I make will help me buy some groceries to help support my 4 year old, and it might even pay for some of my gas to catch a limit of those 9" crappies at the *public* lake you are complaining about.

I strongly believe in selective harvest, but I also feel as strongly that people may act within the specifications of the regulations we are given... Your *venting* is getting pointed at everyone besides yourself, and may be directed mostly toward tourist(city folk)... well... it takes them a tank of gas to go catch some crappies in your lake.. the average truck is $60-$80 now for a tank .. I think that in itself deserves at least a meal of fish.

[walleyeking#8]

Well put Fisher Dave. Just because all they are catching in this particular spot are 9" fish does not mean that there isn't larger ones in other areas of this particular lake. I do plenty of fishing on Waska and know for a fact that there are really nice crappies out there. As for keeping fish, I would rather see everyone keep those 9" fish and put back them 12", granted most of them probably would keep them also. But that is just me.

[EYEHUNTER10]

sorry

[Fisher Dave]

Dont get me wrong, I do care about the lakes in your area.. I care about all lakes. I dont like seeing anyone venting over their local fishing spots seeing things they dont like... I agree, people get carried away.

Right now the area you are in, the area population is shooting up dramaticly... More people, means more people fishing... fishing is becoming far more popular every year, and as you stated, technology is improving. Your greif isnt so much on the tourist(although easy to blame), but its more on the locals with poor fishing ethics... weekend warriors make it there for a day or 2, many of your locals are there every day pulling fish. The best thing you can do is go fishing with proper ethics, and hope it rubs off on some of the people observing your actions.

If you have 1000 crappies a day coming out of the lake.. I hope there are 100 anglers to take them(legal limit).. one thing you can do is keep track of people fishing regularly that are harvesting a lot of fish.. if you see people breaking the law with overlimits.. call TIP, especially if these are people you see fishing daily.. or more than once a day pulling limits.

I feel your pain .. I dealt with this on the inner Minneapolis lakes about 10 years ago when the state record Tiger Musky was caught at lake Calhoun... all of a sudden there was a TON of people fishing the metro lakes.. Muskies at 1st, then people discovered the quality fishery on other species.. next thing you knew the fishing pressure was 30X the previous pressure... there are still lots of fish here, but aggressive stocking to keep up fish numbers, and *educated* adult fish make fishing more difficult than years past... sometimes all it takes to get fish is to tread new ground for fish that arent pressured, and keep your mouth shut when you find them.

[goose89]

Fisher Dave, your last comment says the most.

"keep your mouth shut when you find them." i enjoy reading fishing reports as much as anyone, but when we complain about all the fish being taken off a lake and then continually spew about all the "big pigs" we catch and release... others catch on, and alot of those "others" don't C&R. look at lake emily.

I don't beleive many FMers are meathunters, but don't complain if the walleye fishing goes south in the future after all the talk about em.

and yes, i agree with most of the problem being a "local" one. it happens in the "cities", it happens in the "country." any lake with a population of easily harvestable fish is gonna get hit over and over by the same few people that usually live near it. happened on medicine lake (in the cities) this winter by someone that lived near the lake. i'm guessing that most of the overharvesting on minnewaska is a similar situation.

we all need to show others the benefits of selective harvest. alot of people haven't heard of it and don't understand it's concept. not going to happen overnite, but it will continue to catch on, if we continue to show and explain it to others.

[bigbucks]

I see the points of all the arguments listed. I get frustrated though when people complain about people taking limits of fish. There's a lot of people that don't fish that much that do hit them in the spring from the shore spots & take a bunch of fish home. As long as those people aren't taking multiple limits a day or filling their freezer beyond what they can legally have, what's the problem? I agree word gets out on certain lakes & they get fished down for a while & then another lake benefits by getting less pressure. These things go in cycles.

I understand why someone who's catching lots of fish most times out & goes five or more times a week doesn't keep a lot of fish, but it's not reasonable to expect others to do that. If I get big fish I'll put them back. I might keep a bigger fish, say walleyes up to 24" once in a while if that's what I catch & it's been slow, but those people aren't hurting the fish population. Just because someone chooses to keep a different size fish than you would, doesn't mean they've done anything wrong or unethical.

I do agree with those who've said don't put it on this site if you find a hot lake. It's good to give successful reports, talk about how you caught the fish, baits, the type of structure, etc. but other than the really big lakes where pressure doesn't have near the effect, it's probably best to keep your mouth shut about what lake other than to a few close friends.

It sure seems like anyone who dares keep a some fish to eat on here is going to get blasted by somebody if they mention the size. They're either too big or too small by somebodies standards. I guess eaters is the best term, because eaters can be whatever size "you choose" to eat, & it's the "eater" size of the reader as they're reading it, in their eyes.

Sorry for the length.

[EYEHUNTER10]

I heard the Dnr finally came down yesterday morning and did there job.

[Big Julie]

Just curious; is this Rodd C., Rodd E., or another Rodd with big bucks there in lp?

Big Julie

[bigbucks]

Rodd G. is me, not sure if I know you or not. I lived in Alex until November of 2000, but I'm from LP originally.

I know two Rod E's from LP originally, not sure if one's the same one you're thinking of or not. One I'm thinking of is a relative of mine, late 40's, plumber. The other's late 30's, was in my class in high school, & I think is in the military now.

[Big Julie]

Then I don't know you, sorry,

I knew plumber (and now restauranteer) Rodd and chicken Rodd.

How's fishin over there?

[bigbucks]

Haven't been out much. Tried a couple of spots in the last 5 days or so & nobody was there yet. How about over there?

Plumber & restauranteer Rod is some type of cousin (& my plumber), our Grandmother's were sisters, our Dad's grew up on farms 1/4 mile apart. My folks live on my grandparent's place now, actually I grew up there too.