CRAPPIE CONSCIENCE!!!!!!!!!

[Guest]

i've been fishing these crappies,along with quite a number of you other people, enjoying every minute of catching, and i think even more so, every minute of story telling,since 1998. i'm not a politcal person in any respect of the word...but is there something..really.. something that we can all do, to help manage, this crappie phenomenon, farther into the future, than most of us are thinking right now. I don't know of another fishery like this one..though it may have been an accident, how it came about,wouldn't it be a bigger mistake to watch it go away....i'm told the state of minnesota doesn't have a crappie biologist... if that's what we need, let's get one. I betcha..Babe W., Butch F., John&Dewayne Peterson, Hudecs, Westwind,KellyP.,Dr.Tackle,MORT,Hillmans,... and all the fishing shows that have made a show...all of the dear, local people that deserve their town to thrive again,all of us who love to catch a fish and tell a story....should we ...could we...do something simple now to make sure we can catch a crappie(and a walleye)tomorrow? I'm only thinking about sitting out on that ice with all of you in about 2?...3?...4?...10? years from now saying to each other " REMEMBER WHEN...YA..I SURE WISH WE WOULDA." PLEASE...if have constuctive ideas.. don't hold back. thanks for keeping an open mind BURBOTBRUCE

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[Polar Bear]

Hi Bruce, you maybe saw Babe's show this past weekend on Red Lake. One of the points he made (also on his website) is how the DNR projects the crappie population to decline as the walleyes regain their place as the major predator in the food chain.

I know nothing about fisheries biology but from the info presented it seems to me to be a classic case of a boom and bust situation. I'm just not sure that any type of management will halt the inevitable crash of the crappie population. If the walleye is a critter more suited to the ecology and forage base of the lake is there anything we can do to change that?

Think about what a strange situation we're in; Many of us would gladly, happily trade every walleye in the Red Lake system for the future promise of this great crappie fishery! From my limited point of view the current management strategy is in favor of walleyes at the expense of the greatest crappie lake of our lifetimes.

If there is anything we can do to assure the future of Upper Red's crappies count me in.

Polar Bear