Both in good ways and bad…. 👀
> Crappie populations in Red Lake exploded in the late ’90s and early-2000s in the wake of a collapse in walleye populations driven by overfishing in state and tribal waters. With few predators in the system, crappies moved in to fill the void, and anglers by the thousands flocked to Upper Red to enjoy the bounty.
> Practically overnight, the town of Waskish on the east shore of Upper Red went from ghost town to boom town. Slab crappies in the 14″ range – and occasionally larger – were common, and the boom lasted several years.
Folks were literally filling 5-gallon buckets with ’em…basically until they were gone.
Now I am not saying that’s the ONLY reason they vanished. Most of the crappie boom in the early 2000s was driven by an off-the-charts hatch in 1995. And the last strong crappie year-class (until recent years) was in 1997.
But you can’t tell me that folks keeping HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of crappies outta there over the years didn’t impact reproduction. 🤔🤷♂️
> The DNR didn’t start conducting annual creel surveys on Upper Red until May 2006, when walleye fishing reopened. That was right at the end of the crappie boom…and anglers kept about 37,000 crappies during the winter of 2006-07.
> Tony Kennedy, large lake specialist for the DNR in Bemidji: “We see crappie reproduction every year. We catch the little ones in the seine hauls, but they never recruit to the fishery – they never survive. In 2010, we saw a few – in ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, that range in there – but that wasn’t even really enough to be noticed by anglers….
Well, some noticed 🤓 I can tell you that I snuck up there just over 7 yrs ago now (Mar 2016) to target crappies on purpose and we were able to put a couple dozen fish topside – never measuring a crappie under 12 inches:
> Based on DNR creel surveys, anglers landed an estimated 15,000 crappies this winter on Upper Red…compared with about 900 crappies, on average, over the previous 10 winters or more.
> The current uptick in crappies, he says, is driven by a strong year-class in 2018 and a series of weaker year-classes beginning in 2010. A year-class refers to the number of fish recruited to the population from a particular year’s hatch.
Some resorts chose to keep their rentals going (after the walleye season closed) to run crappie trips. I don’t blame them one bit! They have tons of bills to pay and extremely short seasons to try and do it.
Some operations chose a different approach:
> Outdoor Authority: “We have been asked over and over to stay open for crappies. We feel that the 3 good year-classes of crappies in Upper Red would benefit everyone more. If they would be able to make it and spawn…giving us a better age structure and higher numbers of crappies in the years to come. Not saying that you can’t keep any or not to fish them. Go ahead and fish them. It’s just the approach we are taking to help the crappie population in Upper Red Lake.”
This next chunk is just my 2 cents. Take it for what it’s worth, which isn’t much haha.
Personally, I don’t understand folks wanting to keep and kill every single HUGE crappie they catch outta there. Yeah maybe that’s easy for me to say since I might get out fishing more often than others, or have more opportunities to keep a few smaller fish for a meal out of a different lake….
But to me, those URL crappies are just a special kind of critter. They grow insanely tall, have stretched-out scales, big foreheads, and eat basically anything that you put in front of their face. Plus how are you ever going to catch a 15- or 16-incher if you keep all of the 12-14s? You simply can’t have a new strong year class without breeders in the first place.
I know that if folks are keeping #s and size of fish that are within their legal limit, well then I should probably just mind my own business. “Watch your own bobber” is what I always say lol! But it’s just something I wanted needed to get off my chest.
Go out and catch them! Enjoy them!! But don’t forget to respect them…. This could be the start of a very special population of fish, and I guess it’s just hard to sit back quietly and watch every one that gets caught hit the pavement…. To me fishing is about more than just filling your bucket. If you’re only in it for the meat, it’d be way cheaper to hit the grocery store.
Okay, okay, I’m done. 😮💨
