Crappie on Cedar Creek

I was told there was an article in the Lexington Herald Leader stating that the size limit was dropped. I got an EMail into KFW but no response yet. If ya know anything about this please post a reply. Yhank Ya

Thats true. It was lowered by an inch or so I believe. The KDFWR has noticed in their electro-shocking surveys that there are too many small crappie in the lake and not enough keepers. The reason behind the lowered size limit is that too many small fish will stunt the growth of crappie. Kind of like if you put several goldfish in a bowl, they will not grow past 3 inches, but put several in a pond, they will grow to 1 ft. Crappie are just the same, too many crappie in such a small lake will stunt the crappie growth, with the competition of structure and food will stress the crappie and stunt thier growth. The small crappie will also affect the size of other fish as well. If you fish a pond full of small bluegil or bullhead cats, your not going to find a huge bass, because the small fish are choking the large fish of food. A lake full of larger pan fish and bait fish (Dale Hollow) will be a lake full of larger bass too. So, although it may seem as if they are trying to harm the crappie population to some, they are not, and they will probally raise the size limit in a couple of years.

My understanding is that it is dropping, but that it doesn't go into affect until March 1, 2008 (a year from now). That means the 9" limit will be in effect for another year. I could be wrong, though.

You are probally correct, gurl, most of these changes don't go into effect overnight. Of course, studies have to be done and whatnot to make sure this is the right thing to do and they probally want to make sure all the larger fish are caught out therefore they cannot skew any of the results and efforts to make Cedar a better crappie lake

On Friday, March 9 at the KDFWR COmmision meeting it was voted to drop the nine-inch size limit. It doesn't take effect until March 1, 2008. The March 1 date is standard for new fishing regs, that is the day the new license takes effect.

Here is the link to the article [URL]http://www.kentucky.com/306/story/20144.html[/URL]

which says in part:

Beginning March 1, 2008, the 9-inch minimum size limit on crappie at Cedar Creek Lake in Lincoln County will be lifted. "Initially, there were a few larger fish, but after evaluating the population last fall we found that most crappie were under 9 inches long, and growing very slowly," Buynak said. "By removing the size limit this will allow anglers to thin out the population, and hopefully promote better growth."

Thanks alot guys for the input. I finally got my EMail from KDFW.