Give ’em an inch
New regulations for crappie at Sardis Lake should play well with Mid-south fishermen
People who’ve had trouble catching crappie that met the 12-inch minimum length limit on Sardis Lake the past few years are likely to be pleased with the announcement last week by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
After crunching the numbers and listening to concerns from the angling public, MDWFP officials have decided to officially lower the minimum length limit for crappie on Sardis to 11 inches. The daily creel limit will also drop from 20 per person to 15, and anglers will now be limited to three rods per person.
The changes will go into effect at the height of the crappie-fishing season on March 21.
“This is a fluid situation,” said Keith Meals, a fisheries biologist with the MDWFP. “It’s something that could always change again in the future. But for right now, we think these regulations will allow us to please the most anglers while still protecting the fishery.”
Protecting the fishery was the motive for the original regulations (12-inch minimum, 20 per day) when they were passed back in 2007.
Sardis Lake was 10 feet below normal due to a severe drought, meaning its entire fish population was being forced to live in a smaller, crowded home. At the same time, fishing pressure was at an all-time high due to some excellent word-of-mouth about Sardis.
The lake’s most devoted crappie anglers believed something needed to be done.
“There were several petitions to the agency insisting that we do something to protect the lake’s crappie population,” Meals said. “That’s why the original regulations were passed.”
The regulations have inarguably had positive effects in terms of quality of crappie that are caught on Sardis. Photos of 2-pound-plus crappie have become amazingly common the past three or four years, and several national media outlets have named Sardis one of the top places in the country to land a 3-pound-plus crappie.
A 2-pound crappie is considered big by most die-hard anglers as it basically equates to an 8.6-pound largemouth bass. A 3-pound crappie is considered “gigantic,” equating to a 13-pound largemouth.
But negative comments have still poured in from people who have struggled to catch 20 crappie that measured 12 inches or more on a daily basis.
“It’s a story we’ve heard lots of times,” Meals said. “People go to Sardis and catch 100-150 crappie in a day’s time, but still don’t have 20 that meet the 12inch requirement. There have been a lot of people frustrated with the number of 11- and 11½inch fish they’re catching.”
The new 11-inch requirement should settle those complaints, though Meals believes it might not have been as much of an issue this year anyway.
“Our studies have shown that there are a lot of 13-inch fish in the lake right now,” Meals said. “The upside of people being forced to release so many 11-inch fish in the past is that those fish have all grown up to be 13- and 14-inch fish now.”
With a lower minimum length limit and more legal keepers in the lake, MDWFP officials expect more fish to be kept this year. They’re trying to offset those potential effects by lowering the daily creel limit to 15.
“The winter of 2011-12 was one of the warmest on record, and a lot of people started fishing year-round,” Meals said. “There’s more fishing pressure on Sardis right now than ever before. A lot of people who once fished a couple of months during the spring and maybe a month during the fall are fishing all the time now.”
Meals said another factor that led to the lower creel limit and the rod restriction of three per person is the increased number of trollers who are now frequenting the lake. Trolling, aka spider fishing or pulling, is a method that allows anglers to increase their catch by using multiple rods and multiple lures to cover a wide section of water.
The strongest negative reaction to the new regulations has come from trollers. Several commenters on the Memphis Outdoors Facebook page said summer trolling with crankbaits, for example, will be a useless endeavor for someone fishing by himself who is limited to three rods.
“Fishermen have been limited to three rods on Grenada Lake since 2007, and our fall samples from last year showed that Grenada Lake had one of the healthier crappie population structures of the four flood control reservoirs,” Meals said. “We believe it’s a good move for Sardis as well.”
Trollers will also likely be affected by the new regulation that limits anglers to 40 crappie per boat, regardless of how many people are on the boat.
“We understand that you can’t please everyone,” Meals said. “We’re trying to find a balance that protects the fishery and its potential for producing an amazing quality of crappie while still allowing people to take home a suitable quantity every day. It’s not an easy thing to do.”