Crappie catch and release

[SnellTier]

Last autumn my partner and I were catching crappies like crazy on Lake of the Woods using a small jig and minnow. They were stacked up and looked like a Christmas tree on our locator. The schools appeared to go from about 10 feet down all the way to the bottom of the lake which was about 25 feet.

We tried to do catch and release but wound up keeping a lot of them that curled up and stayed on the surface and died.

Why did that happen? Were we doing something wrong as far as releasing them? Did we bring them up from the bottom too fast? How can we do a better job next time?

[ryan the poor college kid]

The only way that I have discovered is to bring them up very slow. The change in pressure from even 25' is enough to send their swim bladder out their mouth. At our local lake we run into the same problems. I just take a little bit more time bringing them up when I catch them and 90% of the time, they swim off great. Then if one or two don't , well they just might hit the frying pan!

[morriscode]

Yeah bring them up a little slower and it might help. However I have heard that it takes minutes for them to adjust to different pressures, which isnt very practical for reeling them up as it would be pretty hard to keep ol paperlipz on for that long. Just dont crank em up as fast as you can and you will notice a difference. We have this problem ice fishing alot, sometimes we bring fish from 35 feet down and we have the same problem. THe key is to release them right away and get em back to the bottom so they can return to normal. I have seen them on the camera and they may look a little lazy until they get within 5 or ten feet of where they came from.

Hey thanks for actually releasing a crappie!!! you need to come to the MN Metro and give some of these guys that keep the potato chip crappies a seminar on what a tru slab is.

morriscode

[SnellTier]

Morris ... with my hand spread wide open and fingers as far apart as possible the span of my thumb tip to little finger tip is 8 inches. Heck, MOST of these crappies were that big measured from the top of their backs to the bottom of their bellies. I never did measure the length of them ... maybe I will next year. I DO know it was a TON of fun catching them. My partner and I would catch 40 of them in an hour once we were on them ... and the only reason we did not catch more is that the little varmints would move off our marker while we were catching and unhooking our doubles ... and then we would have to search for them because they were so tightly packed. What a ball!!

[Bill Krejca]

Tomd

LOW crappies can be a lot of fun in the fall. After a number of years of enjoying the sport, several things I've noticed regarding the fish's ability to get back down upon release:

- A slow bring up maybe helps somewhat, not sure it is real significant.

- Down to about 22 ft, they seem to not be affected too much by the pressure change. Around 25+ ft seems to be a more critical depth as to how they are negatively affected by the pressure change. You have to fish them where they are, but if in the 22- ft range,maybe hit this depth harder(if they are in the biting mood there).

- Believe it or not, a gentle release, that is, easing the fish back into the water, seems to result in a higher percentage of deep originating fish to stay on top than occurs with a simple throwback. I think maybe the shock of hitting the water somehow facilitates their return to deep water. This is just opposite of conventional release thinking, but improves release success considerably.

- I like to squeeze down the barb on the hook. This allows in much faster unhooking, less time for the fish to be out of the water. Have noticed "0" losses due to not having a barb. I like to use a minimum of a no. 1 size hook on my jig. This maybe helps in reducing the catching of "babies" and some troublesome small perch.

Good luck

[Rather Be Lucky]

I've been doing the LOTW crappies in the fall for about 10 years now. I agree with the post from Bill with a small but important addition. For me it seems the most successful release is a two handed one. Hold the fish under the belly in one hand, with your index finger closing its mouth while holding the gills. Then GENTLY squeeze the fish for a count of 5, with the other hand, You will see a few small bubbles out the mouth. Then flip the fish into the water. Most will go back just fine, the ones that don't get neted and released right in the grease (with a little beer and busquik, salt and pepper). It' important to release alot to keep the size and quality of such a fine fishery as LOTW just that... a fine fishery. But you GOTTA eat some. Swede