Crappies and Gills

Got a chance to get out and do some crappie and bluegill fishing Saturday and found a nice hole. They bit the best in the mourning hours and slowed down tremendously as it warmed up. Once it warmed up we couldnt find them again. We used a minnow under a bobber fished about 6 to 8 feet deep in about 10 foot of water. Found a few gills also. All in all it was a decent day as 2 of us caught 38 crappies and 13 gills. Only fished for about a 1/2 hour for the gills.
Here are some pics.

Heres another pic of some of the bigger ones we got.

What state were you fishing in??

MN is 10 Crappies/Angler

WI is 25 “Panfish”/Angler

I hope it is Iowa, were there is no limit on panfish…

Wack’em and Stack’em!!! Right?

We were fishing the river with a minnesota liscense. The river is a boundary water between minnesota and wisconsin. Limit is 25 crappie/angler.
There was 2 of us fishing.

Nice bunch of fish. It’s great when you get them located and are successful.

Why do you keep/kill all those fish. Some look pretty small, not even big enough to fillet. You remind me of my fishing friends from the 60’s, fill the gunny sack and to hell with the fishery.

Sorry, but I am old and opionated.

On panfish, I hardly think you could hurt the population to bad by keeping them for the table. In WI, I beleive the limit is 25 of each, not a combined total. Besides, who here has the right to tell another person what is right, if they are abiding by the rules? The regs are set to insure a healthy population. Sorry for sounding like a jerk, but I am so sick of people pulling the “holier than thou” attitude when it comes to keeping fish .
By the way, nice looking bunch of fish you got there. The gills are stacked on the wingdams around here and the size is above average.

Quote:

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2 – For the Mississippi River and connected backwaters the daily bag limit is 25 and possession limit is 50 for each of the following: crappie, rock bass; bluegill and pumpkinseed combined; white and yellow bass combined.

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I see that once again, they’ve chosen to write the regulations in the most cryptic nonsensical language availabe to them. My take is:

Quote:

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You may keep 25 each of A or B.
A=crappies, bluegills, pumpkinseed, rock bass combined
B=yellow and white bass

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The picture looks like a two-man limit unless I miscounted.

First, nice bag of fish. I used to make a mean crappie tempura back in the day.

About those regs, just when you thought it all made sense… it’s even foggier than that Gianni Mn has some ‘experimental regs’ on pools 5, 5A and 8 that need to be contended with if you’re a MN angler. Limits here are 10 – combined.

Angler harvest can have a drastic and negative impact on quality of panfish available on the river. Intense pressure and persistent over-harvest on some of the backwaters of the Missississippi River have negatively impacted the size structure of adult panfish available to the point that that DNR has responded with some much tighter bag limits in some areas. Please avoid giving people the impression that any fish or fishery is proofed against the actions of anglers. There’s no way we could ever fish the pannies out but we can crop them off at 7″ with some persistent meat hogging.

Check out this link for some maps that will explain where these areas are and their boundaries. (Scroll to the bottom of the page and select your pool of interest.)

MN DNR webpage – Experimental Panfish Regs on Pool 5, 5A & 8.

Quote:

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2 – For the Mississippi River and connected backwaters the daily bag limit is 25 and possession limit is 50 for each of the following: crappie, rock bass; bluegill and pumpkinseed combined; white and yellow bass combined.

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The way I read it is that your daily possesion limit is:
25 crappie
25 rock bass
25 bluegill/pumpkinseed – combined
25 yellow bass/white bass – combined

…… but I’ve been wrong before.

Chad

Quote:

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Quote:

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2 – For the Mississippi River and connected backwaters the daily bag limit is 25 and possession limit is 50 for each of the following: crappie, rock bass; bluegill and pumpkinseed combined; white and yellow bass combined.

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The way I read it is that your daily possesion limit is:
25 crappie
25 rock bass
25 bluegill/pumpkinseed – combined
25 yellow bass/white bass – combined

…… but I’ve been wrong before.

Chad

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I guess the way I read it the dailt limit is:

25-crappie, rock bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed combined total.
25 white and yellow bass combined.

Confusing.

Gator Hunter

I’m quite sure Ilbfishn is right. Crappies and rock bass are twenty-five each, sunfish (bluegills and punkinseeds) are twenty-five combined, and white/yellow bass are also twenty-five combined. The punctuation gives it away.

James, do you have a link to the study which demonstrated the angling impact on the size structure as well? That would be an interesting read, as almost anything I can find documented on panfish population indicates that harvest is positive for the health of the fishery and promotes diversity by preventing any one year-class from dominating.

The down side is that almost all serious panfish science comes from the South, where crappies and bream (‘gills) contend only with catfish for harvest. Here in the great white North, walleyes get all the attention and dollars, and I’m curious how much real study has been done, especially with respect to winter harvest.

Nice catch! The discussion of “how many is too many,” is always a touchy topic. Down here on the river, both IL and IA have implemented a 25 fish limit for crappie. The Iowa DNR biologists told me that they pushed for it, because there were way too many small crappies being kept. The thought, per the biologists, was that people would throw back some of the small ones, if they were limited on the quantity they can keep. At ACL, we have a rule set by the association, with the recommendation of the state biologist, that all bluegills are “catch and keep.” I can tell you that I violate that rule frequently, and I’m told I am hurting the fishery by not keeping the 10”-12” monsters I put back each year!! On one hand, I feel good for putting them back, but sometimes I wonder if I’m doing more harm than good. I must admit, it’s a nice struggle to have.

Sure you can hurt the population of sunfish and crappie.
This has already happened on some of the Upper Miss pools and the DNR has reduced limits accordingly. My opinion is keep what you want for a meal or so, but release the rest.

I am not sure if you notice this in the LaCrosse area, but the lack of large sunfish on pools 5A and 6 during late summer is very noticeable.

Part of my curiosity stems from the diversity of the river habitat between, say, the Twin Cities and the Quad Cities (lotsa cities on ‘dem rivers).

Essentially, it goes from river, to lake Pepin, back to river, and into the endless backwaters of pools 8-10, then back to river, then no safe ice. I’d be willing to bet that nowhere in the upper midwest (possibly Devil’s lake, but population is so low up there?) that gets pounded pounded pounded like pools 9 and 10 during the winter. This is the first year where a limit would have any impact, yet the last few years fishing has been phenomenal. Older studies in the lower pools have shown that siltation is the largest detriment to the fishing, with anglers not even in the noise, but I haven’t seen anything newer than maybe 5 years.

Are the panfish population and sizes better on the lower pools, and if so, is it the fact that they don’t get safe ice, or just the generally warmer temps? There’s too many variables to attribute short-term trends to specific changes, but hopefully the new limits end up being a benefit to us all. For now, though, I would have a serious problem finding fault in someone who kept fish to eat given that’s what the DNR here has always told us to do.

Here’s another wrinkle for you. I was talking to a nieghbor and he told me he was fishing from the shore on the Minnesota side Pool 8, a Minnesota Warden told him on shore, between the tracks on the Mississippi, he had to follow Minnesota regs, in a boat he could follow the state he was licensed for. That doesn’t even follow the regs the way I read them. So I called the Lacrosse Fish and Game and they said that was wrong. If you are fishing in Minnesota waters you follow Minnesota regs (10 gil limit pool 8), and be careful because the border doesn’t follow the main channel around Lacrosse like down around Lansing or pool 9. I’m new here so I check things out don’t want a ticket for not knowing. As far as the 25 fish limit, it is great no more of this 5 gallon bucket of fish or what I always hated seeeing a bunch of 3-5 inch gils laying on the ice. As far as panfisherman’s fish they look pretty good to me. You know how crappie are they can look huge with those big fins and tail and then when you start filleting you say hmm looks a little small but hey looks good to me. Like someone said who are we to judge others.
Wow just call me windy!

hey Windy!

We are going to start calling you the landlubber if you don’t get on the water. Send me a walleye report from the Winneshiek.

Oh, but I lub my land ya know.
Would you settle for crappie report from Rathbun? Think I’ll head over there sunday.

I’d settle for a Rathbun crappie report.

Anyone know if the motor reg is off at MacBride yet?

would love to hear how ya do at rathbun. just returned from a weekend of crappie fishing. the weather was tooooo hot but great, little bit of wind saturday. six guys and 3 boats, all fishing diff areas and depths. many small small fish, maybe a handfull over 9″. a couple of nice eyes jigging for crappies. course always a few kitty kats. thought maybe they might have the feed bag on, but not for us. looks like in about 3 years those 9″ crappies should make rathbun a hotspot like it use to be…………. i hope.

I put a new post onto the Rathbun forum.