re: MS crappie limits lowered due to scopin

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Old Baw on our lake in NE louisiana goes out and keeps 30 a day with livescope. Baw doesnt miss a day and donates the fish to his church. Its a problem.

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There are about a half a dozen on Clarks Hill (Georgia side, same thing on SC side) doing the same thing except they are keeping 70-100 or more a day on the Georgia side...facebook is full of pictures of them. According to the Georgia DNR the population is healthy. The average size is FAR better today on Clarks Hill than it was 20 years ago. Even during the spawn the fishing is TOUGH though for average anglers....or has been for several years. I think it is the pressure....the fish are constantly seeing jigs in front of them. I have no basis for that but I know most people agree that while the average size is far better the fishing is pretty tough compared to what it used to be, unless you have live scope and then its very easy to find fish. Catching them not so much at times but finding them is simple. I think it is making an impact. Cutting the limit to 10 a day is draconian but it is probably necessary....

Can the guide simply go out, catch their limit, take it to the truck and offload it, then go back out?

In some ways, my $.02 is you get some value for your taxation with the Parks and Wildlife department. It's probably not the most efficient method, but protecting fisheries is something that is unfortunately needed.

I wouldn't mind going out and catching fish all day and being selective about which fish we keep.

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Can the guide simply go out, catch their limit, take it to the truck and offload it, then go back out?

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Most wouldn't, not because it would be illegal but because they would have to book 2 trips for the day and one is more work than most want to do 7 days a week. Once they have fulfilled their obligation, either in numbers or hours on the water they are ready to go home like everyone else at quitting time.

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In some ways, my $.02 is you get some value for your taxation with the Parks and Wildlife department. It's probably not the most efficient method, but protecting fisheries is something that is unfortunately needed.

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Paying to hunt and fish is one form of taxation most outdoorsman do not mind. The reason is simple, we see a pretty good return on our dollar. Most of the professionals who manage game and fish are pretty good at what they do. Their budgets are not bloated to the point that most government agencies are and most of their budget comes from outdoorsman so there is a strong understanding of the customer base unlike most government agencies. There is no doubt inefficiencies but for the most part they do a pretty good job. The further west you go this may not be so....the PNW is a mess because the public does not demand better service and the regulators have created an atmosphere where most people give up. Luckily in the south we still have enough numbers to keep them in check.

I'll also add that when I hire a guide, I'm looking at it as an opportunity to learn rather than just paying to catch fish. We took a crappie guide out on Toledo Bend and learned quite a bit. One lesson was that it is WAY easier with Live Scope. Ha.

Things that the article said the study proved:

1. more people are using sonar.
2. more people are loading boats at the ramps.
3. people using sonar caught 2x to 3x as many fish as those that didn't.

nothing about the impact that this has had on the quantity or quality of crappie in those lakes is described in this article. In fact, it seems like the exact opposite of the reason they made trout/redfish limit changes here in Louisiana. I'd think that if everyone is catching 50 crappie a day, the population must be pretty freaking healthy right now.

"we can't limit out on trout and redfish like we use to. there must be a population problem. Let's lower the limits."

"too many people are catching too many crappie. Let's lower the limits."

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Without livescope, were people already limiting regularly? Or are significantly more people limiting now with livescope? If it's the latter, I can understand the rule change because harvests have gone up significantly. If it's the former, it's flawed logic.

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It's the latter, and it's not even close. I grew up crappie fishing the Big 4 and Ross Barnett, know them as well as anyone: Used to even the best fishermen in Magnolia Crappie Club would get their asses kicked at Grenada more often than not. When it's on, it's on, but more often than not, it was a grind to find a few.

Now? I know young cats in their 20s with top of the line livescope setups who have only been crappie fishing long enough to learn livescope who are smashing the fish every time they go to Grenada. Ross Barnett, which has much more stable conditions, quality flooded timber, and ledges galore where you can find biting fish, and it is pretty much a guaranteed limit with livescope, and limit out they do. There's no culling or keeping just enough for dinner for far too many crappie fishermen.

Take livescope away and give them conventional sonar/downscan/sidescan and a spider rig and they'd do good to catch 2 limits in a post spawn/summer pattern. It took years to be able to obtain the skill necessary to go to these pressured fisheries and catch a decent sack of fish outside of the spring spawn.

I forsee the length and limit count getting downgraded state wide in the coming years. It's not sustainable when crappie fishermen with 3 years of experience are hammering them like they are. Wait until more and more veterans switch over and learn the technology and you've got a problem on yours hands.

When I got interviewed at Ross Barnett, they actually counted the fish in the live well.

There was no ‘take the fisherman for their word’.

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Wait until more and more veterans switch over and learn the technology and you've got a problem on yours hands.

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My cousin used to set nets and catch 55 gallon drums full of sacolait in Toledo Bend. I'm talking thousands of them. He'd hand fish bream and go through 17000 crickets a year. Toledo Bend has plenty of fish. Live scope isn't hurting them.

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My only point is that polling fisherman (who always freaking lie and say they catch more than they do)

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You think fishermen are telling green jeans they caught more than what they really did?