Smaller Limits May Mean Bigger Fish


October 19, 1997|By Don Wilson of The Sentinel Staff

If state fisheries biologists have their way, you won't be taking home as many crappie from Lake Monroe next year.

But those you do keep will be giants of their kind - and get even bigger in the next few years.

The Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission wants to experiment with a 12-inch minimum size limit for crappie in the lake near Sanford.

The first-ever minimum size rule for the species would accompany a statewide reduction in the total daily allowable catch.

The game and fish commission is considering halving the 50-fish bag limit per person throughout the state.

The Monroe experiment is an attempt to see whether fishing on a specific lake can be managed to yield exceptionally large crappie - lots of them.

The lake was selected because its fish seem to have supercharged growth rates.

''Lake Monroe is one of our better lakes because its crappie grow much more rapidly than they do in other lakes,'' fisheries biologist Joe Jenkins said.

Jenkins oversees the commission's fisheries management for the St. Johns River.

During the fall and winter, Monroe is one of the most popular lakes with the crappie-fishing crowd, and each year anglers take home many thousands of fish.

Each year, the annual harvest is between 35,000 and 80,000 fish.

In the 1994-95 season, Jenkins said, they kept an estimated 75,732 fish.

In the lake's peak year, 1989, crappie catchers kept 108,000 fish, according to game and fish commission estimates.

The average size of the fish is between 9 and 10 inches.

State biologists estimate almost half the fish kept are less than 10 inches long, or only between 2 and 3 years old.

So most of the lake's fish are killed before they even come close to reaching their maximum growth.

If the 12-inch minimum is approved, 75 or 80 percent of the fish now kept would have to be thrown back.

Instead of being taken when they are just 2 years old, the fish would have a chance to survive until they are at least 4 years old.

The results should be just this side of spectacular.

Between their second and fourth years, Monroe's crappie increase their weight by 260 percent.

The reason?

The lake's abundance of a specific food item.

When a crappie reaches about 6.7 inches in length, it switches from eating food such as grass shrimp to other fish.

And one of its favorites is a species of which Monroe has plenty.

''The lake has a large population of threadfin shad. That is the preferred food item for larger crappie,'' said Marty Hale, the GFC biologist overseeing the commission's statewide crappie program.

Another reason for Monroe's potential is the turnaround in the lake's habitat.

Water quality has improved since municipal wastewater was diverted to spray fields and water managers began restoring the marshes in the river's headwaters.

In addition, a GFC revegetation effort has established hundreds of acres of new plant growth in the once-barren lake bottom.

Before the commission imposes the 12-inch minimum, it will have to meet with the approval of those who actually fish the lake.

The biologists are planning a series of public hearings in the next few months.

If there is widespread opposition, they will not go ahead with the rule change.

If they do go ahead, the change are not expected to take effect until July.

If the experiment proves to be successful and anglers on Lake Monroe are catching more high-quality fish, it could be attempted on other lakes on a selective basis.

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