green lake

Anything happening on Green Lake up their. I heard there are some nice crappies up there. Any info would be appreciated.

Couple guys I know left with 8 nice crappies and a nice walleye. There is a 9″ minimum on crappies up there now so be ready to sort and have a tape handy They were in the southwest bay area.

9″ on crappies? Is that something new for this year? Sure hope it works. It would be great to get some size back in those fish up there.

Question for you crappie guys…. how old / long does a crappie need to be before it spawns for the first time? This 9″ minimum size has me wondering if that size restriction will allow these crappies to spawn at least one time before they make the minimum size… or if there was some other reason for selecting that 9″ size limit. As it sits 9″ seems awful small to me. I thank anyone with any insight in advance.

Green has had this in place for a long time now. They started it there to see if they could improve the average size of the fish.

A 9′ minimum sure doesn’t seem like it would protect many fish from the bottom of a bucket. Are guys really keeping so many 7″ and 8″ crappies that a 9″ minimum will actually bring the average size up? Has it worked?

Thanks for humoring me with all the questions, guys.

A lot of guys I know will go to Forest or Chisago/South Center to keep crappies because of the slot on Green. Crappies in these lakes to me seem to hover on the 8′ or less size. If anyone has any info on Green as of late, I would love to hear it.

Green lake
black crappie test netting data
(0-5″)12 (6-8″)512 (9-11″)21 2006

Long range management goals for Green Lake include maintaining the walleye gillnet catch near 5 per set with a 1.5 pound average and the northern pike catch between 2 and 4 per net with a 2.5 pound average. Green Lake is also included in a statewide experimental regulation research project. In 1997, a 9 inch minimum size limit was implemented for black crappie. The daily bag limit remained unchanged. The goal of the regulation was to increase the portion of crappies greater than 10 inches to 5% of the population while maintaining the current angler harvest in pounds. This regulation has been extended until 2010, at which time decisions will be made to implement it permanently, modify or eliminate the existing regulation.

Both gillnets and trapnets are used to evaluate the black crappie population. The black crappie gillnet catch (30.3/set) was well above normal compared to similar Minnesota lakes. Lengths ranged from 4.3 to 8.6 inches with an average of 5.7 inches. However, the trapnet catch (12.7/set) was within normal range of abundance when compared to similar Minnesota lakes. Lengths here ranged from 6.5 to 10.9 inches and averaged 8.3 inches. Green Lake has maintained consistent population levels but a slight shift toward smaller fish has been noted recently. The average weight in all surveys has been very constant around 0.20 pounds. Age-growth rates were slow compared to the statewide average. Annual crappie spawning success is usually good in Green Lake. The purpose of the experimental regulation mentioned earlier is to see if there can be a shift from smaller crappie to larger crappie. Data from creel surveys indicate that the crappie harvest is very high each winter and spring, but the average fish kept is around eight inches or less. Very few crappies above the nine inch size are seen. The logic of the special regulation is that if crappies were protected from harvest until they reached nine inches, more quality size crappies would be available for harvest. At this time, it is apparent that the regulation has not dramatically improved the crappie population size structure, abundance still fluctuates, and growth rates have not improved. Angler creel surveys have indicated that angler noncompliance may be limiting the effect of the regulation on the crappie population. However, slow growth rates may hamper Green Lake crappies likelihood to exceed 9-inches. The experimental regulation was set to expire in the spring of 2005. A public input meeting was held in November of 2004, and a consensus was reached to extend the regulation another five years.

That got me thinking about how it compares to the other Chisago Chain of Lakes for black crappie….

Chisago 2005
0-5″(23) 6-8″(125) 9-11″(7)

South Center 2005
0-5″(8) 6-8″(155) 9-11″(6)

Forest 2005
0-5″(48) 6-8″(68) 9-11″(0)

So maybe it does look like it is helping a bit for Green.

You would think it would have to help unless the fish are stunted. Sure hope it does.

I think a lot of metro fisher people keep crappies under 9″s. If you didnt the meals of fish would be few and far between on a lot of lakes. I know some lakes where 6 and 7″ crappies are big. Sad to see that.

I think there are lot of people that keep crappies in the 8-9″ range on other chisago area lakes and one would think the 9″ minimum help get more fish into the 9-10″ range. Once the fish get over 9″ they will probably be kept, so you won’t see much of increase in the surveys in my opinion. These lakes are hit hard in the winter and spring for panfish so a lot of the bigger fish are taken each year. It is interesting to see that the green had way more fish in the 6-8″ range than the other 3 by a high margin. Maybe time will tell and this regulation will make a difference in bigger fish, but it doesn’t seem that has made a huge difference yet. I applaud the DNR for trying to do something with these regulations.

what they could do is have a max length, I have talked with the DNR Bio department guy once about length regulations, he said that her personally thinks keeping the small ones and letting the big ones go will increase the size. that is because once a fish reaches a certain size they will not be legal anymore.

I tend to agree with that. Keeping smaller fish and letting the bigger fish go will help improve the size in the lake, but it is darn tough to get people to think that way. Most people only want to keep the bigger crappies and sunfish.

ive been fishing the crappies and gills up there alot this year , chisago ,green , kroon ,s center , etc and were catching alot of fish but for the life of me we cant get one over 10-11″ to me thats a lil small . im waiting to get to red lake this year or blackduck .

but when we were heading back to the truck there was guy there with about 15 crappies in a bucket none of which were over 10 mostly 8-9 ” people are slaming these lakes and not giving them a chance to reproduce

i don’t know if the size restrictions on green are helping it with size, but there are a lot of crappies and eyes in that lake.Just not the ones someone can keep. we were out last spring and all the crappies in shallow spawning were 7-9″. so none kept. even out on the rocks walleye fishing we caught crappies the same size. i did catch a 15″ crappie bass fishing last spring on green. i don’t know if the restrictions help, but on the chisago and green there is numbers of fish were there is restrictions on them. i know on chisago the restrictions have greatly helped the bass pop. with size and numbers.