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Where have all the crappie gone?


Agronomist_at_IA

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Well , My first trip to Red Lake was in cloth diapers as I recall it was wet and miserable.

I lived the haydays of the Walleye and the Crappie as well as the decline of both and I can tell you this.

If every Crappie and every Walleye in Red Lake were gone I will still go there for the locals and the good times I have had.

How many people on this site have made a friend up there or had so much fun it is worth the trip , fish or no fish ?

Anyone ?

For those who will scratch a lake off your list because you fail to fill your pail with meat I say fish Lake Sam's Club. There is always someone there that will put you right on the fish and you will never be skunked.

sincerely !

Hookey

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After today the topic will be

"Where have all the walleyes gone?"

Man it was BRUTAL today, hate these frontal/pressure deals.

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Having the marbles to be a guide Johnny, I am sure you can handle any kind of Pressure!!!

Sooner or later, some people will resort to using the JJ Walker style of fishing, by getting rid of their hooks and minnows and becoming the KIDS OF DYNOMITE!!!!

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Oh it was just one of those days. I sat and watched crappies and walleye on the camera nose up, nose down and leave... I have the new Marcum 820 camera and was hating how well it works today. I could clearly see those fish hated my presentations...all of them. mad.gifconfused.gifcrazy.gif

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Jonny P,

5+ years from now are we going to be seeing trophy walleyes.

Were there a lot of trophy eyes in the lake back in the day?

I would assume so, but just wondering if Red will give a person the best odds of a 30" fish in the future compared to other large lakes.

Crappies might be down/gone but trophy eyes will lure people!

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That is why I don't use a camera very often, I just went to using a LX3tc for the first time this year. Bad enough when I throw the whole tackle box at em, but now I get to see that they show up and still don't like it. Before I just thought they were somewhere else. Sometimes knowing is more painful that just thinking they were someplace else on the lake.

That's the stuff that keeps us going out and trying something new and LEARNING!

Thanks for letting me know that it even happens to pro's like you!

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Oh ya we definetly have an increased trophy catch rate and I believe it is just going to go up.

The reason I say this is "back in the day" a 3lb walleye was big news on Red. Now we are seing large fish weekly. I can count in my head six fish over 25" I nettted for clients this summer, another was a young young man a few weeks ago with 27" and several 26-28" wallye showing up in the sleepers. Upper had a chance to rest and what few Walleye where left got big!

And for the cameras I always learn when watching the fish approach, sense and attack. I learned eelpout will try to eat a camera, pike really like the blue light if its moving and the walleyes today are on a bug only diet.

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Hookey,

You nailed it. I'd take average fishing at best and still go up to Red for all the friends I've met and made up there. Waskish is a special place like no other.

Plus no matter how bad the wether, it is rare to get skunked on Red. I can't say that for too many other lake. You may not fill pails like past years, but if you put in your time, you should come away with dinner.

Good Luck!

Ken

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 Originally Posted By: Jonny P

Of course that was a time when anglers cared less about the biggest, best and easiest, we had anglers that just liked fishing and getting away. Move ahead to fast food becoming the norm, drive up everything became the only way and the "efficent angler" was marketed until the general menatality became go home limited or don't go at all.

If that is the case then how did the walleye population crash in the 1st place? Anglers back in the day were no more ethical then they are today and much more likely to keep everything they caught.

I don't understand why someone would not still go to Red when the crappie numbers are down. As stated earlier, trophy potential for walleyes will only get better. I also prefer Red because of the lack of structure, no need to be right on top of each other fighting to be right on a break line (not that this stops someone from setting up right next to you). Most other lakes shut down after sunset but many nights on Red keep getting better well after dark.

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Last year you could travel off road anywhere so the key was to find the rough ice and fish the heaves. This year with so much snow cover it is harder to get off the road and be more mobile - especially if you are pulling a wheel house. It will get better once the migration starts and the fish start moving along the crappie highway.

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I guess I better say nice things about the locals, having family that went to school in Shooks probably makes me related to everyone living north of Blackduck. ;\)

The family tree has one branch. Yuk-Yuk

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Before the "crappie boom" I heard nothing about Red Lake other than you dont want to break down there in the middle of the night.

Some buddies from college took me there six years ago. I had no idea non-indians could even fish any part of the lake. I knew nothing about Upper Red. That night we hammered the crappies. I had never seen fishing like it before. Just awsome! Probably the best fishing experience of my life. Not only the fish but the fun of the trip. We drove from Brainerd to Red, fished all night. Drove back to Brainerd, slept for a while and drove right back to Red. Of course that was back in the day when I could blow off a couple days of classes with no regrets. Now its tougher to have that much un-resposnsibility.

I have returned to Red every year at least once and never had that kind of fishing again, nor do I expect to. I do get caught up is the issue of the crappies and if they are there or gone but I think as long as there is a chance of catching a 14 inch bonus slabber I will return every year. The only problem is the cost of the trip. Its hard for me to justify the added cost of gas when I can have good walleye fishing on four other lakes within thirty minutes of my house.

Red Lake is a cool place to spend time fishing and I hope it stays good fishing for years.

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Eating a 14+" crappie is like eating a 26-27" walleye. Would you eat a 27" walleye hope not. If you can get a nice trophy crappie for the wall thats fine but let the rest go. It won't be long before they are gone or at least a very rare find. Enjoy well you can but you don't need to keep you limit. I have my 17" on the wall thats all I need. Have not kept a URL crappie in 4 years.(CP&R)

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I'd have to disagree with that. Red Lake crappies are some of the best tasting fillets I have ever eaten. Best part is one crappie will basically feed one man for dinner. Those slabs are huge!

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Thats not my point. My point is to preserve the fish that are left. I don't go up there to fill my freezer with 14" crappie fillets. I go up there because I have a chance at bring home a trophy fish. Not tring to disagree with anybody. It's just on mans opinion thats all.

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I have heard rumors that the crappie year class of 95 will soon die of old age. If the crappies are not reproducing well does this mean regardless of catch and release they will be gone someday anyways? Has anybody seen mass amounts dead crappies washed ashore in the spring time? I would think that someday there would be mass die-offs of fish and then people would know if the crappie days were over.

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Ace, even if we "preserve" the fish we have now, their just gonna die off in a couple of years. Those fish are 10-12 years old. Thats really really old for a crappie. The lake will never be entierely fised out of crappies. The lake is too big. There will always be some in there. Maybe in 5 years we'll hear of a guy catching a 16"+ but for know lets enjoy what we still have.

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I regularly catch 12" crappies right here in the metro area. Although 14 inchers are very rare, a friend of mine caught a 16 incher tonight! The trick in my opinion is seeking out small lakes with very little fishing pressure. Also, lakes that winterkill are nice producers usually a year or two after the kill.

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 Originally Posted By: AceintheHole
Thats not my point. My point is to preserve the fish that are left. I don't go up there to fill my freezer with 14" crappie fillets. I go up there because I have a chance at bring home a trophy fish. Not tring to disagree with anybody. It's just on mans opinion thats all.

I respect that. Maybe your situation is different that mine too. I drive 250 miles just to get to Red Lake. I'm not driving home empty handed. ;\)

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 Originally Posted By: FishOn!
I regularly catch 12" crappies right here in the metro area. Although 14 inchers are very rare, a friend of mine caught a 16 incher tonight! The trick in my opinion is seeking out small lakes with very little fishing pressure. Also, lakes that winterkill are nice producers usually a year or two after the kill.
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 Originally Posted By: K Dawg
their just gonna die off in a couple of years.

I've been hearing that for 5 years now yet people keep catching crappies from the '95' class.

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The ones that size around the metro area do not taste nearly as good as the ones out of Red Lake. In fact anything that size I catch down here goes right back in the water to keep the gene pool strong.

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I believe quite a few of the crappies being caught are also from the 1998 class. Are they not? I heard it was also a very good hatch. Not as great as the 95 class but still a good hatch.

A few years ago, we were catching two different sizes, about an inch difference in length which would also point to different classes.

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Another thing that a lot of people forget when talking about the life span of a crappie is that they are talking about the average life span. That includes prededation. Red Lake crappies of those year classes did not hardly see and predators until the word got out, so the average life span of those crappies will be longer.

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 Originally Posted By: late night
Granted the tribe did more than the state to reintroduce the walleye to the lake but the state should have done little to nothing in my opinion. The crappie boom did more for the non-indian locals of Upper Red Lake than a two walleye limit ever will. The tribe needed the walleye back so they could resume commercial fishing operations. Non-indian people making money on Upper Red did not need the walleye back if the crappies could have stayed around longer until the walleye came back naturally.

I think this is right on the money. I'm ont going to get into the arguement of the Tribe vs. the State, but strictly from this anglers point of view, URL is a much more attractive destination as a crappie lake. Walleye lakes are a dime a dozen in MN. But trophy crappies are what made URL unique.

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Yep, I agree there. I think the DNR years ago when it became popular should have put a 12" min. on the crappie and stocked the heck out of the crappie. I did not see as many ice houses on the lake when the crappies slowed down some. I love going to Red for the crappie. One of my favorite fish to catch. grin.gif

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