Lake Sylvia-Twin Fishing Reports

[fishingfool]

No I wasnt, had a conflict that night.

[bassNspear]

has anyone fished by the light house for eyes?

[mike morris]

Yup.

[noodlerod]

You must not have been out much BNS they have been pounding the lighthouse point since you could get out on the ice ! With no luck to my understanding , besides to many people for me there has been more houses there than any place on the lake !

[noodlerod]

They where during the day ( sat to be exact ) rainy snowy and cold I remember them well

[fishuhalik]

Originally Posted By: fishuhalik

noodle, comparing sylvia to mille lacs is like comparing a dandilion to an oak tree. They're trying to keep the nice size pike in mille lacs by putting in a slot. In lakes like Sylvia, they're trying to weed out the smaller pike so that the bigger pike can have a better chance to grow with less competetion for food.

I'll agree with your 1rst & 2nd sentance but your 3rd sentance tells me you obviously have no idea what your talking about . In the 2008 meetings on proposed new regs on Sylvia , Paul Detrich (spelling ?) who happens to be war eagles boss unless that has changed , explained something totally diff on why and what this reg on Sylvia would do for the lake ! He explained to make a long story short that it would make the over all population of pike larger thus evening out the population of all fish by getting rid (pike eating) the small fish thus making the lake come whole. not to ruffle your feathers but please check your facts first..

Right, that's just a given when smaller pike are allowed to grow up. The medium-size (24 & up) pike get bigger, eat alot of the smaller pike, and between getting eaten by bigger pike and people, the lake (in theory) balances out. It's been done on many different lakes in the state, with very mixed results.

[fishgutz77]

If you were going to do anything for the crappies in Sylvia, you'd have to do two things.

1. Get rid of the small pike that are whaling on the 1 inch crappies.

2. Get mother nature to give you a good slow warm up in the spring and stop fishing them on the beds.

I will take about 3-4 years to bring'er back.

[fishuhalik]

Was there some nice crappies out there in years past? I guess I never heard anything about 'em.

[bassNspear]

You must not have been out much BNS they have been pounding the lighthouse point since you could get out on the ice ! With no luck to my understanding , besides to many people for me there has been more houses there than any place on the lake !

dude, i havent been able to get up to the cabin all winter long. Been a long winter with out getting out there! I am pushing to go next weeked!

[noodlerod]

I wish you luck

[noodlerod]

Was there some nice crappies out there in years past? I guess I never heard anything about 'em.

Years ago and Im talking 10-15+ you could get 11" to 13" crappies all day long and the ocasional 14"15"+ were not uncommon

plus set up for eyes at night and catch 2 or 3 fish 24"+ with ocasional hog even trophy . I know those days are long gone and I'm glad I got the opertunity to experiance it , but It's just a shame to know how good of a fishery it once was and how drasticly

It's changed in the last few years . Im sure there are numorus

lakes just like this I'm just partial to Sylvia .

[mike morris]

It sure has changed! Damnit I was I was older and could have experienced those years lol

[BOUNCED]

Right, that's just a given when smaller pike are allowed to grow up. The medium-size (24 & up) pike get bigger, eat alot of the smaller pike, and between getting eaten by bigger pike and people, the lake (in theory) balances out. It's been done on many different lakes in the state, with very mixed results.

Is it a "given it works" or are "the results mixed"?

(You may be able to get a job with the DNR )

The ONLY thing the slot limit does for sure is effectively ban spearing.

[bassNspear]

your correct spearhead. The fish population should pick up in the next few years

[fishuhalik]

Sorry, kinda mixed up my wording. I guess it's kind of a cr@pshoot, some lakes have responded very well while others haven't shown any change.

[jigginjim]

Many lakes seem to have so much fishing pressure, the fish just seem to get over harvested, (larger fish) nobody willing to keep the smaller more numerous fish. Those big girls seem to take 5-7yrs to grow really big.

[merkman]

The ONLY thing the slot limit does for sure is effectively ban spearing.

Not sure that is the only thing the slot limit does; but it does do that very well.

Hopefully we can get that part changed so it does not bannish darkhosue spearers to other lakes.

[fishuhalik]

(grenade, take cover!)

Yeah, we gotta get those spearers off our lakes! They're taking all our big pike!

Just pullin yer leg bud.

[merkman]

(grenade, take cover!)

I think that quote is going to have legs around here for quite a while

[mike morris]

Sylvia sucks this year anyway. Go somewhere else for a couple years and let everything get bigger.

[noodlerod]

It would be nice If It were that easy !

[bassNspear]

Sylvia sucks this year anyway. Go somewhere else for a couple years and let everything get bigger.

hard to do when its the most popular lake in this area!

[noodlerod]

hard to do when its

the most popular lake in this area!

BNS You have to come out more often ! Clearwater and John are by far the most popular lakes in the Annandale area this year if your compairing fishhouses on the lake !! take a drive around you'll see what I mean , and thats the way it's been long as I can remember (local with 30+ years of experiance) for Ice Fishing anyways !!!!

[duckman5547]

I will not dispute that it is a popular lake, just not for fishing. The other lakes around here see far more pressure in the winter. The reason I fish lk sylvia is because it is quiet in the winter. In the summer it is extremely popular, once again not for fishing. On the weekends you cannot even fish without the possibility of getting hit by weekend warriors on the jetskis, big fancy ski boats, or pontoons. Is there really a reason to have a boat with 225 hp on a 800 acre lake??

[mike morris]

You gents hit the nail right on its head. Sylvia is by far one of the most popular recreational lakes, not fishing lakes. It doesn't even compare to the fishing pressure that Clearwater, Pleasant, John, and others in the area see!

[bassNspear]

You gents hit the nail right on its head. Sylvia is by far one of the most popular recreational lakes, not fishing lakes.

this is what i meant.

[wareagle]

I will give my $0.02 here for what it is worth.

In 2008, there were a whole suite of regulations on the table for East and West Sylvia. Walleye, bass, pike, sunfish, and crappie. The only regulation that was supported by the public was the NOP regulation. Some may say that this was too much at one time. I don't know.

The goal of the NOP regulation is to target the harvest towards the smaller NOP, thus in effect trying to increase growth by thinning out the smaller fish. Whereas, on lakes like Mille Lacs, the goal is to keep the quality of the fishery. Back to Sylvia, is this regulation guaranteed to work? The answer is "no". I tell people if you put this regulation on 100 lakes you may get 50 that are successful, 30 that stay the same and 20 that are unsuccessful. That is why these regulations are experimental and will be re-evaluated after 10 years. If there is no change there is the option to remove the regulation. But, anglers need to realize that the change will not take place over night. The point is, keeping the status quo, the lake will likely stay the same. But the upside is that this regulation has a good chance to work. I guess my feeling is what does the lake have to lose? Also, our goal is not to eliminate spearing, but I agree it does make it tougher.

As for crappie, I wasn't at the meetings in 2008 and do not know what was said by my supervisor. I can tell you that the goal of the 5 fish bag is to spread out the harvest over a longer time frame and to protect the species from over-exploitation. Especially, during the spawning period. Unfortunately, these fish are highly vulnerable during that time and can be targetted rather easily. Another thing to consider is that crappies are highly variable in their recruitment and can go 4-5 years before pulling off a successful year class. Unfortunately, as noodlerod explained, some anglers fill their live wells over and over during this time, but these anglers would continue to do it whether the limit was 5 or 10. My best advice is to call TIPS and turn them in.

I hope I've answered a few questions and hopefully, we can now get back to fishing reports.

War Eagle!!!

[bassNspear]

I will give my $0.02 here for what it is worth.

In 2008, there were a whole suite of regulations on the table for East and West Sylvia. Walleye, bass, pike, sunfish, and crappie. The only regulation that was supported by the public was the NOP regulation. Some may say that this was too much at one time. I don't know.

The goal of the NOP regulation is to target the harvest towards the smaller NOP, thus in effect trying to increase growth by thinning out the smaller fish. Whereas, on lakes like Mille Lacs, the goal is to keep the quality of the fishery. Back to Sylvia, is this regulation guaranteed to work? The answer is "no". I tell people if you put this regulation on 100 lakes you may get 50 that are successful, 30 that stay the same and 20 that are unsuccessful. That is why these regulations are experimental and will be re-evaluated after 10 years. If there is no change there is the option to remove the regulation. But, anglers need to realize that the change will not take place over night. The point is, keeping the status quo, the lake will likely stay the same. But the upside is that this regulation has a good chance to work. I guess my feeling is what does the lake have to lose? Also, our goal is not to eliminate spearing, but I agree it does make it tougher.

As for crappie, I wasn't at the meetings in 2008 and do not know what was said by my supervisor. I can tell you that the goal of the 5 fish bag is to spread out the harvest over a longer time frame and to protect the species from over-exploitation. Especially, during the spawning period. Unfortunately, these fish are highly vulnerable during that time and can be targetted rather easily. Another thing to consider is that crappies are highly variable in their recruitment and can go 4-5 years before pulling off a successful year class. Unfortunately, as noodlerod explained, some anglers fill their live wells over and over during this time, but these anglers would continue to do it whether the limit was 5 or 10. My best advice is to call TIPS and turn them in.

I hope I've answered a few questions and hopefully, we can now get back to fishing reports.

War Eagle!!!

just for my own knowledge, where do these stats come from?

[wareagle]

BNS,

The numbers I used are a "for instance". It was basically to say that some lakes will respond positively and other may not. Unfortunately, results from fisheries science isn't always black and white like we would love to see. There are so many variables that we cannot control for, but protected slots have been used for a long time nationwide and have had their successes (sp?) and failures. Each lake will respond differently to a regulation, but we have had success in the past, so there is reason to believe that we will have success in the future. Sylvia??? Who knows, only time will tell.

Anyway, our research group out of Grand Rapids has been looking at the success rate of NOP Regs in Minnesota and I believe has published a paper on their findings. I will have to look around my office to find a copy of the report. I can let you know when I find it and email you a copy.

I hope I've addressed your questions.

War Eagle!!!

[bassNspear]

Thanks for the information. That would be great to see them reports for sylvia!

I wasnt trying to make a mess here, just wondering where they were coming from! Thanks