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I was at a local bait shop the other day and the owner suggested that if I caught crappy while out on our lake that we should keep them whether we wanted to eat them or not. He said they overtake lakes and mess up the ecosystem. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?


Gravelguy4
Sorry if this is a repeat topic.

I dunno, but when the water is cold they taste great

I 've heard the old timers say the same thing for years,those things are going to kill this lake. In your lake are the Crappie a natural fish or were they introduced??? If Natural , then I would say they have nothing to worry about, Mother Nature has a way of Balancing things out, so I would keep them ...only if I was going to eat them...If i wasn't going to eat them they would go back. If they were introduced to your lake...it may take a little longer for Mother Nature to work it out but she will....Crappie is a great sport fish...(if you can find them), but once you do they're great fun to catch, they are great fish for kids to catch

crappie are definately a nuisance...

they are slowly taking over the kawartha's, and have been accurately (the biologists) described as the reason the walleye fishing has been slower in the last few years...

they are listed as an invading species in many bodies of water, including all the Kawartha lakes...

I'll agree to it if you're fishing a trout lake but other than... I don't think i've ever fished many bodies of water that didn't have crappies or bluegills in them.

If I'm not mistaken, crappie were "introduced " to the Mississippi Lake not too many years ago.

Since then they sure have reproduced. I like to catch them, so, nuisance........ , Guess it depends on your point of view.

If they mess up the walleye fishing then nuisance they are, but they're there now so its a moot point. They ain't leavin

If the Miss was a spec lake and they were dumped in, it would make a lot of people REAL unhappy.

I can remember not having any crappie on the Ottawa - maybe ten years or so ago???
Tons now, especially this year.

my friend has lived on Hay Bay his whole life (20 plus years)...

he'd never seen a crappie until last year, when i caught a couple....then he caught a few this year....

like many places, they are exploding...

Last year was the first year I had seen them on our lake. We caught a couple nice sized ones and they tasted great. I don't keep any other fish species I catch so it was nice to bring home something so tasty. I hope they don't overpopulate like some have said they might but its good to have something I don't feel bad about keeping.

[quote="Gravelguy4"]I was at a local bait shop the other day and the owner suggested that if I caught crappy while out on our lake that we should keep them whether we wanted to eat them or not.[/quote]

Gravelguy4, I believe that a Crappie is considered a sportfish, As such, it would be illegal to allow it to spoil.

Was he suggesting you do that? It wouldn't surprise me if he did. I've been told to kill Bowfin on the Rideau system and Drum in Lake St. Clair. The reasoning was similar.

I can empathize, though. I used to hit this tiny Speckled Trout lake a couple of hours away. I could used a bobber and a worm and feel confident that any movement was a Trout. Then, someone introduced Sunfish into the lake. That was the end of float fishing a worm.

Leakyboot

i believe his suggestion was to use it for fertilizing the flower beds if nothing else.
They don't bother me really. Some of my neighbours who believe they need to keep everything they catch have started targeting them. I'd rather see them taking home a stringer full of crappies than of bass.

yep, if you haven't ate crappie before, try it out, and save other fish.....

what a combo!