Follow the forage: the sunfish and crappies of March

Terry Tuma Blog

March 8, 2014

Regular ice anglers already are noticing an important rite of late winter: Sunfish are moving into shallower locations. They’re anticipating spring food sources coming shallow. A number of things trigger this movement. Melting ice delivers food and more oxygen to the shallows. Photoperiodism is another key. The angle of the sun is their calendar!

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Beatons Lake, a Gogebic County hidden gem

Beatons Lake in Gogebic County is a textbook case in the difficulties in modern fish management.

"It has always been a very nice trout lake," explained Michigan Department of Natural Resources senior fisheries biologist George Madison. "However the yellow perch population became problematic."

The problem? The yellow perch were cropping the zooplankton abundance, of which the stocked rainbow trout depend on for forage.

The DNR responded by stocking walleye to thin the perch population. While walleye were helping to control the perch, they were also preying on the bluegill fishery. Local residents want to preserve their shallow-water oriented fishery, which they can access from boat docks and shore. The DNR wants to make sure the bluegill/bass populations can provide the hook-and-bobber fishery that is popular for families who live along the lake.

The DNR tried another approach: splake. These brook trout/lake trout hybrids utilize yellow perch as forage, so they were stocked to help control the yellow perch numbers. That management tool, which is showing some good signs, needed some adjustment.

"We learned that where we were stocking the rainbow trout and splake, the fish had to swim through a narrow point of the lake to get out to deeper water. Common loons would frequent that narrow area and feed on both the rainbow trout and splake as they migrated to deeper water. Based on that, we moved the stocking site to the central portion of the lake so they will not get preyed upon by the loons," explained Madison.

Ideally, the splake will keep the perch population in check, leave the bluegills alone, and help maintain the plankton level that allows the Eagle Lake-strain rainbow trout to thrive.

"That's been working well," Madison said. "We're letting the natural balance of the panfishery prevail. The bluegill fishery seems to have rebounded. We meet with the lake residents regularly and they report the bluegill and bass fishing has come back. This lake is a nice fishery for panfish."

Beatons Lake has a long history of fisheries management. As far back as the 1920s, fisheries managers stocked the lake with landlocked salmon, though they failed to bear fruit. Rainbow trout, which were first stocked in 1942 and biologists have observed spawning on the gravel shoals, have filled that niche nicely.

The 330-acre lake is located about 12 miles northwest of Watersmeet. It reaches a maximum depth of 90 feet with sparse aquatic vegetation, though there is an almost continuous gravel shoal area around the lake that should provide adequate spawning habitat for smallmouth bass. The lake has no inlet and forms the headwaters of Two Mile Creek, which supports native brook trout, and drains into the Cisco Branch of the Ontonagon River.

Madison said Beatons Lake hosts a U.S. Forest Service boating access site and is an ideal place to enjoy a peaceful day. Good primitive camping is available at the nearby Ottawa National Forest and there are some nearby developed campgrounds as well.

"There is no human development in this area, therefore this lake has beautiful night skies for watching northern lights and meteor showers," he said. "People who have never experienced night-fishing with lanterns for rainbow trout will find this a great place to do so!"

Wisconsin Council of Sport Fishing Organizations on Facebook

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Public invited to share panfish feedback in meetings; Input to help guide statewide panfish management plan

MADISON – Anglers and others are invited to share their expectations for fishing for panfish in Wisconsin at more than two dozen meetings across the state in February and March.

“We want to hear from the public on what they want from their panfishing experience to help guide us in developing a statewide plan for managing panfish populations,” says Joanna Griffin, the Department of Natural Resources fisheries specialist coordinating the effort.

The public meetings mark the opening phases of statewide outreach efforts by Department of Natural Resources’ fisheries management to better connect with anglers in Wisconsin. These first meetings will focus on panfish management although other local fishery concerns may be covered at the meetings, she says.

Attendees at the meetings will be asked to fill out a short questionnaire to help DNR understand their concerns, issues and priorities for panfish. The questionnaire and background materials presented at the meeting will be available online in coming weeks.

DNR has long had management plans in place for game fish species such as walleye, bass, musky and northern pike, and biologists and some anglers believe such attention is necessary for panfish.

“We know there have been proposals from the Conservation Congress in recent years and again this year to reduce the daily 25 fish limit on panfish on select lakes. Their concerns, along with our data analyses and modeling efforts, lead us to believe we need to take the next step and develop a management plan.”

As a category, panfish are by far the most common fish caught by anglers in Wisconsin although anglers report walleye as their favorite target. Wisconsin anglers reported catching 88 million fish in the 2006-7 license year, of which 57.7 million were panfish, according to a statewide mail survey done that year. About 25.7 million of those panfish were kept.

“We hope the feedback we get from anglers can help us understand whether to stay the course, or if they want changes in their panfishing experience that could require us to do something different, depending on the particular waterbody and its capabilities.”

The dates, times and locations of the panfish meetings are listed below.

Feb. 12, Stevens Point, Ben Franklin Jr. High School, Learning Resource Center, 6:30 p.m., 2000 Polk St.

Feb. 18, Waukesha, DNR Waukesha Service Center, 7 p.m., 141 N.W. Barstow St.

Feb. 19, Eau Claire, DNR Eau Claire Regional Office, 7 p.m., 1300 W. Clairemont Ave.

Feb. 19 Horicon, DNR Horicon Marsh Education Center/lower level auditorium, 7 p.m. N7725 Highway 28

Feb. 20, Hayward, Hayward High School Auditorium, 6:30 p.m., 10320 N. Greenwood Lane

Feb. 21, Plymouth, Plymouth High School Cafeteria, 7 p.m., 125 S. Highland Ave.

Feb. 22-24, Madison, Madison Fishing Expo; Fri. 4 p.m.-9 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m-7 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-5 p.m., DNR booth at the expo at the Alliant Energy Center, 1919 Alliant Energy Center Way

March 4, Shawano, Shawano Library, 5:30 p.m., 128 S. Sawyer St.

March 4, Burlington, Burlington High School Library (2nd floor) 6 p.m., 400 McCanna Pkwy

March 5, Mercer, Mercer Community Center, 6 p.m., 2648 W Margaret St.

March 6, Medford, Frances L Simek Memorial Library, 7 p.m., 400 N Main St.

March 6, Adams, Adams County Community Center, 6:30 p.m., M 569N Cedar St.

March 6, Florence, Wild Rivers Interpretive Center, Large Conf. Rm, 7 p.m., 5631 Forestry Dr.

March 7, Butternut, American Legion Hall, 6 p.m., 126 4th St. North

March 7, Dodgeville, DNR Dodgeville Office, Prairie Room 7 p.m. 1500 N Johns St.

March 7, Wautoma, Waushara County Courthouse, Demonstration Room, 6 p.m. 209 S Main St.

March 7, Fond du Lac, Fisherman's Road Fishing Club Headquarters, 7 p.m., End of Fisherman's Road on Lake Winnebago

March 11, Merrill, Merrill High School large conference room, 6 p.m. 1201 N. Sales St.

March 12, Brule, Brule Ranger Station, 7 p.m. 6250 S. Ranger Road

March 12, Menasha, Germania Hall, 7 p.m., 320 Chute St.

March 13, Rhinelander, Rhinelander Service Center, 7 p.m. 107 Sutliff Ave.

March 13, Green Bay, Brown County Library Auditorium, 6:30 p.m., 515 Pine St.

March 14, Woodruff, Woodruff Town Hall, 7 p.m., 1418 First Street (Highway 47)

March 14, Spooner, Spooner DNR Service Center, 7 p.m. , 810 W. Maple St.

March 14, Waupaca, Waupaca Area Library, 5:30 p.m., 107 S. Main St.

March 14, Black River Falls, U.W. Extension Office, 7 p.m., 227 S 11th St.

March 14, Woodruff, Woodruff Town hall, 7 p.m., 1418 First St. (Highway 47)

March 18, Balsam Lake, Polk County Government Center, East Conf. Rm. 7 p.m., 100 Polk County Plaza

March 18, Crivitz, Crivitz High School Auditorium, 6:30 p.m., 400 South Ave.

Take our online survey if you can’t attend a meeting

Ice Fishing & Safety by Jerry Opicka - Dec. 12

Dec. 12 - Jerry Opicka, panfishing expert, past WFC president, “Ice Fishing & Safety.”  Learn ice fishing hot spots, equipment, baits that work, safety, techniques, how to read ice, 7 p.m.  FREE!  Big Dog Pub & Grill, formerly Yester Years Pub and Grill, 9427 W. Greenfield Ave., West Allis, 414-476-9055. Contact: Cliff Schulz, President, (414) 453-9913, LindaESchulz@WI.RR.com.  Fishing reports, fishing equipment raffle, plus hot food is available.  New members are always welcome.

Have a great holiday fishing season,
Larry Van Veghel

WFC, Media Director & Secretary and
WCSFO, Media Director & Secretary

Gamefish on the humps

Humping For Late Fall Open Water Gamefish

A cold wind crept down his back, but he did his best to ignore it. He knew soon that the ice fishing season would arrive. He liked to cast and fight his quarry in open water. It was big fish season, and a real outdoorsman and a veteran of snowy, frigid Packers games could take it.

He continued to cast…retrieve…cast…retrieve. The repetitive motion helped keep him warm as did a thermos of hot coffee. He made a well-honed cast toward and just beyond some broadleaved aquatic plants and began his retrieve.

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Paul Redel with a typical largemouth that hit his special balloon tipped Mepps inline spinner.

Photo: Courtesy Paul Redel

Lawrence Van Veghel

Milwaukee Fishing Examiner

Experimental sunfish regulations extended on portion of Mississippi River

(Minnesota DNR) An experimental regulation limiting anglers to 10 sunfish taken from the Mississippi River adjacent to Houston, Winona and Wabasha Counties will be extended another five years, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has announced.

Continuing the special regulation, which has been in effect since 2001, was supported by 65 percent of anglers participating in a 2009 public input process. The regulation is aimed at maintaining and increasing the number of sunfish longer than seven inches in Pools 5, 5A and 8 of the Mississippi. It will remain in effect until April 1, 2015.

Impacts of the regulation have been difficult to measure due to a threefold increase in sunfish populations during the post-regulation period, and variable climatic conditions that affect angler effort, said Lake City DNR fisheries Manager Kevin Stauffer.

However, information collected during the pre- and post-regulation periods suggests that when sunfish populations are relatively low, angler harvest can significantly reduce numbers of larger sunfish, and that restrictive regulations like this one can protect those populations from excessively high rates of exploitation.

Crappie is a good word

By: L.A. Van Veghel

Ages ago, the “sunfish series” was started. The big fish, the bass, the smaller fish having big mouths, and the smaller fish having the small mouths -- that weren’t smallmouths -- were covered. Most of these fish fed on worms, insects, invertebrates – to be covered soon -- and smaller fish. The sunfish family members preferring smaller fish remain.

Unlike the Model T Ford which only came in black, crappies come in black and white, but not literally.

Due to the Latin alphabetization, the white crappie, Pomoxis annularis (Rafinesque) comes first. “Rafinesque” is the biologist who identified this “annularis” species of the genus Pomoxis.

White crappie start spawning earlier than do other local sunfish. 57 to 73°F is their preferred range. Most spawning occurs between 61 and 68°F, and the fish nests in colonies. White crappie eggs hatch in approximately one day at 70 to 74°F, per a study by Morgan in 1954.

Black crappies, Pomoxis nigromaculatus (Laseur) prefer spawning in 64 to 68°F water, although a low of 58°F was recorded by Siegler and Miller in 1963. Black crappie eggs take longer than do those of their white crappie relatives. 57.5 hours at 65°F was recorded by Merriner in 1971.

Male crappies guard the spawning nests with more vigor than do most other sunfish. Both crappie types build nests near vegetation. Blacks hybridize with whites.

The white crappie has a moderately oblique mouth. These fish inhabit turbid rivers, sloughs and lakes, even over muddy bottoms especially when feeding, and in fast-warming bays in spring. The black crappie has an oblique mouth, and the fish is found in clear, lakes and impoundments having healthy, green aquatic plants providing plenty of prey and oxygen, and in larger streams and flowages, like Okauchee Lake.

Both Pomoxis versions feed on insects, crustaceans and small fish, but white crappies dine on fish throughout the year. Black crappie switch to benthic, or bottom-dwelling, insects during springtime.

Crappie are food for various larger species and when small for yellow perch. Gamefish feeding on crappie include walleye, pike, grass pickerel, and muskellunge. The great blue heron, American merganser, kingfisher and bittern find crappie to be quite tasty. Mink and otter find it easy to catch these sunfish.

White crappie cover the state, except in the very north. Longer living but slower growing black crappie blanket the state including in our northern counties. Black crappies can reach 10 years of age.

Years ago, the Wisconsin DNR found that waters having garfish and crappie produce bigger crappie. Due to less food, crappie in these cases will not stunt.

Surprisingly, non-native, aka “exotic,” carp can help black crappie populations increase by “converting the habitat from a weedy to a more open-water environment” says George C. Beckler in “Fishes Of Wisconsin.” Most cases see the removal of vegetation via weed killing or weed cutting as eliminating plants supporting natural, living crappie food and causing starvation and death.

In a 1957 experiment by Mraz and Cooper, black crappie, carp, largemouth bass, and bluegill were stocked in numerous ponds of the Delafield Hatchery. Five months later, the survival rate was carp in the lead with a whopping 95.5%. Largemouth bass lead the native fish with 49.5% while bluegills fared poorly at a mere 35.8%. Black crappies did slightly better at 44.0%.

Being popular with anglers means crappie have numerous nicknames. White crappie are called silver crappie, pale crappie, ringed crappie, crawpie, crappie, silver bass, white bass, and obvious misnomers such as newlight, bachelor, campbellite, white perch, strawberry bass, calico bass, tinmouth, papermouth, bridge perch, goggle-eye, speckled perch, shad and John Denson.

Many local black crappie nicknames refer to fishing techniques used in catching these fish, and common nicknames are shared with the white crappie.

For white and black crappie, use small minnows and various diminutive artificial baits such as Dick Smith’s Panfish Grubs, Pinkie Jigs, Beetle Spins, curly tail jigs and little crankbaits. The clear metalflake grub body on a yellow with black eyes Dick Smith Grub is the color pattern I created. The metalflakes imitate small fishes’ scales. Yellow and white grub bodies are also good.

Black crappie can stunt when there are too many fish and not enough food. Don’t feel guilty about keeping some crappie for a fish fry.

Late Season Ice Fishing & Safety

Jan. 25

Wisconsin Fishing Club, Ltd. presents Jerry Opicka, panfishing expert, past WFC president, “Late Season Ice Fishing & Safety.” Learn ice fishing, hot spots, equipment, safety, techniques, how to read ice conditions, 7 p.m. meeting & 8 p.m. speaker. Yester Years Pub and Grill, 9427 W. Greenfield Ave., West Allis, 414-476-9055. Contact: Dan Freiherr, Treasurer, (414) 464-9316. Fishing reports, fishing equipment raffle, plus hot food is available. New members are welcome.

Sunfish with small mouths

A late friend used to enjoy telling women a joke ending with the punch line, “The smallmouth bass is the male, and the largemouth bass is the female.”

Not true, of course, but some sunfish family members have smaller mouths than do other family members.

The bluegill has a smaller mouth than does the green sunfish, and this is a major clue as to the size morsels bluegills want both in natural forage and in fishing baits.

Bluegills, Lepomis machrochirus machrochirus, whereby Lepomis is Latin for scaled operculum, or ear flap, and machrochirus means large hand, either in reference to the size of the pectoral fin or that a keeper bluegill is often the size of a large hand.

The bluegill is the panfish of summer and of brisk ice fishing outings. Many people earned their fishing chevrons by seeking bluegills. A large angling portion remains hooked on ‘gill fishing for life.

The #1 panfish in popularity in Wisconsin, bluegills are called bluegill sunfish, northern bluegills, sunfish, common bluegill, strawberry bass, blue sunfish, sunfish, pale sunfish, chainsided sunfish, roach, dollardee, sun perch bream, blue bream, bluegill bream, coppernosed bream, and blackear bream.

True bream, Abramis brama, are not bluegills, since they are a deep-bodied, but thin, yellowish gray fish found in Europe and Asia.

Bluegills dine on plankton and aquatic insects. Minnows, if small enough, fool some ‘gills into biting, but red worms, pieces of night crawlers, garden worms, various grubs including those from acorns and blackeye Susans, are effective.

Find healthy, green aquatic plants; expect bluegill action.

Pumpkinseeds, Lipomis gibbosus, with Lipomis being the scaled operculum, and gibbosus referring to the nearly full moon body shape, are snail crushers preferring cool ponds and lakes, at least for warm water loving sunfish, and shade. The males are aggressive nest protectors.

Smaller than bluegills, pumpkinseeds provide countless fine fish fries.

Nicknames for these colorful sunfish consist of pumpkinseed sunfish, yellow sunfish, common sunfish, sunfish, round sunfish, punky, sunny, sun bass, pond perch and bream.

Orange spotted sunfish are more numerous in southeast Wisconsin than is commonly known by anglers. These orange bellied sunfish that are not as gaudy as are pumpkinseeds, but they do have red or orange tips on their “ears.” They look like bluegills having a more rakish forehead. See flank view--above.

Nicknames for this tasty sunfish include orangespot, redspotted sunfish, dwarf sunfish, pigmy sunfish, and erroneously, a pumpkinseed.

These fish reach keeper size in southeast Wisconsin, and they provide variety in any panfishing outing.

Often being smaller than bluegills, with many welcomed exceptions, “orange spots” feed on insects and were once thought by biologists Barney and Anson, in 1923, to be excellent in controlling the mosquito population.

Orange spotted sunfish are ideal as forage fish for their larger centrachid (sunfish) relatives

The northern longear sunfish isn’t a popular sunfish with anglers because of its small size. These sunnies prefer warm spawning temperatures of 74 – 77°F, and anytime from June to early August is fine with these rascals. They are active on warm afternoons.

The main difference between the central longear sunfish, Lepomis megalotis megalotis (Rasfinesque), which inhabit Ohio south of Lake Erie ­­– Ohio River divide down to Louisiana, is that our northern longear sunfish, Lepomis megalotis megalotis (Cope), has its ear flap extending upward at a nice, rakish 45º angle, a large red spot within the white border, in place of several red polka dots, and by being the smaller of the two subspecies.

Our northern longear sunfish is widely scattered throughout Wisconsin but not in the Superior drainage basin. These fish were more abundant, but they do not tolerate siltation. Like pumpkinseeds, snails form a large portion of their diets. They grab the snail’s foot and crack-the-whip sideways to fling off the snail’s shell.

Common names for the northern longear sunfish include northern longear, Great Lakes longear, longear, blue and orange sunfish, and erroneously, a pumpkinseed.

Many of the sunfish family hybridize, so identification is sometimes difficult.

Watch for part four in this series. It’ll be Crappie Time!!!


NOTES:

First in the Sunfish Series: Meet-Mr--Mrs-Centrarchidae-aka-the-sunfish-family
Second in the Sunfish Series: Sunfish-with-big-mouths

Milwaukee Fishing Examiner
L.A. Van Veghel

Sunfish with big mouths

Three of Wisconsin’s panfish portion of the Centrarchidae family have larger mouths than do bluegills. Well, actually five do, but I’m saving the minnow loving crappies for a later article in this series.

The largest is the northern rock bass whose Latin name is Ambloplites repestris meaning having a blunt armature (Ambloplites), and living among rocks (repestris) per “Fishes of Wisconsin” by George C. Becker, University of Wisconsin Press. Most anglers in our area just call them “rock bass.”

Nicknames for the “rocky” include redeye, redeye bass, goggle eye and rock sunfish with the latter being the most accurate, since the rock bass, like the largemouth bass and the smallmouth bass are not true bass.

As mentioned, these fish are found in rocky bottomed areas where they spawn in warmer temperatures than do other sunfish. These fish are often found in shallower water that warms earlier.

When fishing for bluegills on a lake, such as Walworth County’s Lake Beulah, panfish anglers casting almost onto the shore are often surprised to get a bite in mini-depth water. This is rockbass territory. These fish are seeking terrestrials, that is insects like grasshoppers who end up in near shore water, and any other tasty invertebrate or fish deemed edible. The diet for a rocky is a combination of meat and fish. Think of them as eating what both bluegills and crappies eat. Rock bass are nocturnal, so midnight snacks are common.

The slightly smaller and darker colored warmouth, Lepomis (Chaenobryttus) gulosis, whereas Lepomis means “sealed operculum” and gulosis means “gluttonous.” It can survive in lentic, “still,” or slow-moving, waters having low oxygen content.

This specie is a fairly recent addition to the family. The warmouth had been thought to be the solo member of the genus Chaenobryttus, but it is now considered a Lepomis family member, and Chaenobryttus is considered a subgeneric rank.

The Wisconsin record warmouth came from Eagle Lake, in Racine County, before its current redoing.

Other nicknames for this aggressive sunfish include warmouth bass, goggle-eye (shared with the rock bass), black sunfish, wide-mouthed sunfish, stumpknocker, mud bass, wood bass and weed bass.

Our final triple panfish threat member is the green sunfish. This tasty fish is best described as looking like a bluegill with a big mouth. Green sunfish, Lepomis cyanellus, whereas Lepomis is a scaled operculum and cyanellus means blue, are usually smaller than are warmouth, but occasionally a larger fish is caught. This sunfish can tolerate turbidity.
Green sunfish, like many of the sunfish panfish members can stunt due to inadequate food supply and lack of angler harvest. It can hybridize, making for difficult fish identification.

Among the sound making fish, green sunfish males grunt during courtship.

Nicknames for this inhabiter of lakes, ponds and slow-moving creeks include green perch, black perch, logfish, blue-spotted sunfish, sunfish, little red eye, blue bass, creek sunfish, rubbertail and sand bass.

The green sunfish diet consists of invertebrates and smaller fishes, so it too prefers a combination of the bluegill and crappie menus.

Milwaukee Fishing Examiner
L.A. Van Veghel

L.A. Van Veghel Photos

In June of 2008 L.A. Van Veghel caught and released this possible state record warmouth. It probably was killed later in 2008.

L.A. Van Veghel with a smallmouth bass that fell for a small shad-shaped crankbait on the Rainbow Flowage.

All species angler, here’s L.A. Van Veghel with a fine eater Lake Michigan salmon from off of Racine, WI.

A nice eater bluegill for L.A. Van Veghel from Lauderdale Lake.

ANGLERS URGED TO SWITCH METHODS TO CATCH MORE KENTUCKY CRAPPIE

Frankfort, Kentucky - For years, anglers at Kentucky and Barkley lakes sought crappie in spring by jigging baits around drop-offs, fishing with minnows in shallow brush and probing stake beds with grubs. While these traditional methods worked well for white crappie, they are not nearly as effective nowadays because of the growing population of black crappie in both lakes.

Anglers who want to catch more fish from Kentucky's most popular crappie fishing lakes this spring need to change their techniques.

"People are still looking for white crappie," said Gerry Buynak, assistant director of fisheries for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. "According to our data, there are more 10-inch crappie in Kentucky Lake right now than we've seen since 1985. But 97 percent of the ones we collected in our trap nets are black crappie."

While white crappie still dominate Lake Barkley, black crappie now make up nearly 40 percent of the population. Buynak says anglers will find fish if they put away their white crappie techniques and target the many black crappie the lakes have to offer.

"Black and white crappie differ quite a bit overall," he explained. "Black crappie move shallow earlier and stay longer. They also prefer clearer water. People don't usually cast to rocky shorelines when fishing for crappie, and this is where the black crappie are in the spring."

Western District Fishery Biologist Paul Rister says fishing for black crappie is starting to heat up as the days turn warmer.

"On warm, sunny days in late February and early March, black crappie are up on those rocky shorelines taking advantage of clear water and warmer temperatures," he said. "You've got to key in on the western shorelines that get sun early in the morning."

Anglers should try curly-tailed jigs with 1/16-ounce jigheads, Rooster Tails and other small in-line spinners. Good jig colors include white, white with chartreuse, white with red, lime-green, chartreuse, blue and pink.

"You need something really light," said Rister. "The old standard is a minnow fished underneath a bobber, using a slow retrieve. Let it sit for several seconds, give it a bump, let it sit there, and continue to work it slowly."

Anglers fishing from boats should cast toward shallow, rocky shorelines. Both lakes possess this type of shoreline on the sides bordering Land Between the Lakes, although Barkley Lake is less rocky than Kentucky Lake overall. The lakes' shorelines are rockier towards the mouths of embayments.

Bank fishing in these areas is also productive. However, anglers must be careful not to spook fish in the shallow, clear water. "If you are fishing from a boat, you must stay back away from the bank and cast," Buynak said. "If you get too close to the bank, you're going to spook the fish."

As cold winter days give way to early spring, the time is right to target black crappie at Kentucky's two largest lakes. Anglers willing to update their fishing methods will find good prospects this year.

Kentucky and Barkley lakes have a 20-fish daily creel limit, 10-inch minimum size limit for both species of crappie. For complete fishing regulations, pick up a copy of the 2009-10 Kentucky Fishing and Boating Guide, available wherever fishing licenses are sold.

Author Hayley Lynch is an award-winning writer for Kentucky Afield magazine, the official publication of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources. She is an avid hunter and shotgun shooter.

[The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources manages, regulates, enforces and promotes responsible use of all fish and wildlife species, their habitats, public wildlife areas and waterways for the benefit of those resources and for public enjoyment. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, an agency of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, has an economic impact to the state of $4.5 billion annually. For more information about the department, visit our web site at http://www.fw.ky.gov/. ]

New crappie, sunfish regulations announced for Inguadona and Rice lakes near Longville

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Commissioner Mark Holsten recently approved new special fishing regulations for Inguadona and Rice lakes, located near Longville in Cass County.

The new regulations, scheduled to take effect April 1, change possession limits on both lakes from 10 crappie and 20 sunfish to five crappie and 10 sunfish.

The new rules, which have broad support from local anglers and the lake association, will maintain or improve the average size of crappies and sunfish available for anglers by preventing over-harvest of larger fish.

Questions regarding the special regulations may be directed to Harlan Fierstine, Walker area fisheries supervisor, at 218-547-1683 or Harlan.Fierstine@dnr.state.mn.us.

Lake Erie Management Unit Newsletter

(Michigan) Hello anglers! This is our annual newsletter covering major field activities of the Lake Erie Management Unit (LEMU). This unit covers all waters that lie within the watersheds which drain into the St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, Detroit River, and Lake Erie. Fisheries Management personnel in this unit include two biologists and a unit supervisor located at the Southfield Operations Service Center and two technicians and a technician supervisor located at the Waterford Fisheries Station. This newsletter highlights some of the field activities conducted by our field staff during 2008.

Click Here!