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A couple weeks ago they were stacked so thick that my fish finder thought they were the bottom. The depth jumped from 55 feet to 20 feet when I got over them.
I doubt they will stay grouped up that tight once PV caps but I don't know for sure. Maybe those big tiger muskie are herding them into schools for easier snacking.
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While it IS less of a problem, I remember 25 years ago when the whole lake was packed full of skinny 9" crappie. Then they put the muskies in and they popped right up to 12" and bigger. But instead of a hundred a day (50 limit), a good day was 25 or so.
I think WE need to be the muskies, and try to head it off. They seem to be growing ok, though, as every year I catch bigger ones through the ice, and then several age classes on down from nice to tiny.
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I bet you're right about the tiger muskies making them stack up. The hardest part when they are that thick is that it seems the larger ones are towards the bottom of the herd. So how do you get past the little guys and into the big ones, especially considering you have to jig them up?
What I mean is you can get past the little ones on the initial drop, but with my flasher I will have one from the bottom of the pack follow up the jig then a new red line shows up and I have a fish on and the one that was following it up will slowly descend back to where it was before.
Oh well, there are still some in the group that you can get a filet off.
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I think PV has a pretty good balance of predator fish to prey fish right now. At least as far as crappie go. Not sure what the perch are going to do in the next couple years.
I agree that people should take their limit home, or as many as they can catch. But the hard part is that the crappie stack up in some very key areas. I ain't sharing where I tend to go because it seems like the schools are feeding in key locations. On the hard deck I have seen friends fishing literally 20-30 feet from me and not catch nearly as many. Or at times I have been the guy on the not as hot spot.
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I don't blame you for not sharing, but I usually will share. I have fished PV a lot in the last 7-8 years, compared to the previous 7-8, and I used to never catch a crappie through the ice. Then, without even trying, I caught a few, and a few more, and now it's not too hard to find fish. They showed up in droves, small and hungry. They are growing, but I'm not at all worried about their numbers, so I will share most places where I catch fish.
NOW, if and when I find spots I'm catching fish 11" and UP, well, that's a whole different 'nuther, isn't it? I'll have barbed wire around my tent, a sign up, and an ugly dog on a chain.
I'm not an expert crappie guy, but I did learn how to draw them in with light at night last year on the cheap, and that worked well. AND, I have HEARD, from a good Midwestern fisherman, that the way to combat the small catch is to use a big, or at least heavy lure that drops fast, sinking past them like a rock. No spring bobber. THEN, when you lift and jig it, raise and lower your offering so slowly that the line never has any slack on the descent. Look and feel for the negative bite; just a small tick coming up the line, or a sudden tiny amount of slack.
Looking forward to testing the theories.
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