Northwest Fishing Reports

Do these things lay a lot of eggs? I was reading that there is not a limit on these in washington state. I caught my first crappie yesterday while fishing for smallmouth bass on the snake river. The guy beside me had a bucket just full of sunfish.

read the regs .. different rules apply to different waters ..

For the snake river the regs are the same as the states.

"CRAPPIE, NORTHERN PIKE, NORTHERN
PIKEMINNOW, PEAMOUTH CHUB, PERCH,
SUCKERS, SUNFISH, CATFISH (except
CHANNEL), BULLFROGS
No min. size. No daily limit.
BULLFROGS (no license required) must be taken by angling, hand-dip netting, spearing (gigging), or
with bow-and-arrow."

I was wondering why that is the case. Seems a species would be completely removed at that rate or are they just prolific breeders?

Yes these things produce like crazy and certain lakes could have populations in the millions of each species. But there is a little more to it than that. Ok.... so their is no limit for certain species of panfish. Every lake in WA has some sort of panfish population, but only a very small percentage of all these lakes have a panfish population worthy of pursuing. So only a few lakes have keep able sized panfish, on all lakes that have panfish worth keeping there will be a set limit and most the times a size limit. Like potholes reservoir, 9" min. size and 25 crappie, Duck lake; 9" min. size and 10 crappie, Sprague lake; 9" min. size 10 crappie. Now these are just a few lakes that have certain size and limit restrictions, but there is plenty more. Now on the other side, take angle lake for example, this lake has a pretty hefty population of sunfish and perch, but you are allowed to catch and keep as many as you want, but do you think this is one of the lakes that has panfish big enough to eat. Of coarse not. So technically there isnt a limit, but in all reality there is in fact a limit on these fish. Make sure to check the regs. I have came very close to breaking the law on numerous occasions while targeting panfish. PM for any help with the panfish, it is one of my favorite types of fishing

Thanks that is exactly what I was wondering GPC. Well what is a good size for panfish? I thought I did pretty good last night when I caught the crappie it was a little over ten inches. I caught one sunfish but it jumped back into the water when I tossed it "towards" my cooler.. oops hah. It was only like 4-5 inches though(I didn't have time to measure that one.. seeing as it made a quick getaway).

a 10 inch crappie is ok. its a keeper in most lakes.

Proverb wrote:Thanks that is exactly what I was wondering GPC. Well what is a good size for panfish? I thought I did pretty good last night when I caught the crappie it was a little over ten inches. I caught one sunfish but it jumped back into the water when I tossed it "towards" my cooler.. oops hah. It was only like 4-5 inches though(I didn't have time to measure that one.. seeing as it made a quick getaway).

A 10" crappie is a nice crappie and in some lakes a very nice crappie. A 7" crappie is worthy of eating any smaller and they are hard to clean. But a 13" crappie would be a trophy. Sunfish are a smaller species, most species of sunfish in WA dont get much bigger then minnows. But there are a couple of species worth eating, one is the bluegill and a 6" is a nice size and a 10" or 11"er are trophies almost. Another species are the neon looking kind, they are very colorful and a beautiful looking, fish and a 5" is nice and an 8" or 9" fish would be a trophy. With perch a 8"er would be a keeper and a 15"er would be a trophy

I just started fishing this year so I'm not keen on all the language, what do you mean by trophy?

Proverb wrote:I just started fishing this year so I'm not keen on all the language, what do you mean by trophy?

When I was using the word trophy I was using the term very loosly. The term trophy refers to a once in a lifetime sort of fish. Not really once in a lifetime, but thats the cut off line that separates the big fish from the huge fish. You know one might deserve a "trophy" for a fish of that caliber. Like I know the cut off for walleye is 10 lbs and king salmon is 30 lbs. But even then there are some places, take Alaska, a 30 lb king isn't considered a trophy fish, but in WA waters a 30 lber is a trophy fish. Make sense?

Yes thanks for explaining it.

i guess i have been doing pretty good for crappie then. i pull a 13 inch crappie out of silver lake once every couple of weeks. no wonder people have been saying im a good crappie fisherman lol. i have never got one thats anybigger but they always want to take pics of them.

13inchs is a good fish but if you hit a 14 or bigger you will be totaly amazed at the size diff.. I caught a 14 incher once in the Wisconsin river and was dumb founded at the size and thickness of that fish.. Really made the other onesI had caught look like baby's .. Lake st clair has some very good sized gills and Crappie in it as well as perch.. Everyone I have talked to there fishes for trout.. I happened to hook up with the panfish and had a ball .. Very nice fish bigger than I have seen anyplace else here so far.. But I have not been to alot of lakes as of yet either..

tnj8222 wrote:i guess i have been doing pretty good for crappie then. i pull a 13 inch crappie out of silver lake once every couple of weeks. no wonder people have been saying im a good crappie fisherman lol. i have never got one thats anybigger but they always want to take pics of them.

Very nice crappie. Last year I fished for crappie, probably 10 times. Just targeting crappie. My biggest was, I believe 12", and weighed 14oz. This was also the biggest crappie that I had landed it 2 years. If you were to enter the dock fishing tournament at mar don resort, that fish probably would have taken 1st place for the crappie categorie last year. That fish would have got you around $250. Once again very nice fish.

Yep, they're very prolific. But as some folks mentioned, the size/daily limits vary from lake to lake. Due to slower trout days, a partner and I recently switched over to crappie. We've had some great success on some local lakes. Yesterday we got 40 or so, 20 of which got filleted out and tossed into the pan....tasty little buggers! Even the wife loved them! We got them in a lake where nobody else fishes for them. We'd talked about it for years, ever since we first got some there while fly fishing. These crappie are not overly large, 7-11" with the average being 9" or so, but they've salvaged the summer. Too bad they're not like the ones I used to get while stationed in Georgia and Alabama.....we wouldn't even keep em until they reached 12-13" range. And like someone else mentioned, you can't believe what each additional inch does to the overall size and girth of these characters. I have a 17" mounted and hanging here at the house. What a beast!

Whoa awesome on the 17" one that's really cool.

Has anyone fished the Snake for them? I can't seem to find anymore of them since I caught the other three and the regulars who fish where I got them said they have never caught any of them there, they said the only panfish they get there is sunfish and bluegill. I was reading online to look for structures like logs and what not.. but the snake is pretty clean of debri.. .so what should I look for when scouting out these guys.

Maybe some shelves/drop-offs could produce in a river, maybe in areas of slower current. In lakes, we are actually finding more crappie hanging off shelves than we are finding on structure. While sunken logs can usually produce fish, more prefer jigs that come from shallow bank water, off the weeds, into the deep water. Additionally, this is more effective during the evening in the shadows than during the day. However, we did witness an event the other day where, at 12:00 noon and under a blazing sun, the crappie and small bass were going nuts on fry that they'd pinned against the bank. The coolest thing was that the bass would rarely take our jigs. They'd follow it back to our pontoons, swarming around it. This commotion would attract crappies that would immediately pass through the bass and inhale our jigs, just 6-8 feet under our fins. It was crazy, for a full hour we could not keep them off our hooks!

A river could be tough, though. Any lakes around your area that are known for crappie? Or, for that matter, lakes not known for crappie that are as of yet undiscovered? Right now we are fishing a lake that nobody else fishes for crappie, as far as we know, and we fish this lake a lot.....

Not really.. I live in Pullman and the only thing within a reasonable distance is the Snake River.

Proverb wrote:Whoa awesome on the 17" one that's really cool.

Has anyone fished the Snake for them? I can't seem to find anymore of them since I caught the other three and the regulars who fish where I got them said they have never caught any of them there, they said the only panfish they get there is sunfish and bluegill. I was reading online to look for structures like logs and what not.. but the snake is pretty clean of debri.. .so what should I look for when scouting out these guys.

They say if you are not getting snags while crappie fishing your not in the right spot. That's not necessarily true but they do like cover and shade. My favorite cover is docks and bridge pilings. I don't know too much about the snake, but I doubt there is docks, so try to find a bridge and work that. But cover is key.Also try night fishing. Good luck

Mike Carey and I caught a 16 inch, 2 pound, 4 ounce crappie earlier this spring while fishing for bass in Kitsap County's Long Lake. Photo in Mike's report on Long Lake. That fish hit a 1/4 ounce bass jig on an off shore log.

Bass Tracker wrote:Mike Carey and I caught a 16 inch, 2 pound, 4 ounce crappie earlier this spring while fishing for bass in Kitsap County's Long Lake. Photo in Mike's report on Long Lake. That fish hit a 1/4 ounce bass jig on an off shore log.

SWeeeeeeeeeT!!! Did you keep fishing for them? It's great to catch a nice crappie while bass fishing, isn't it. I've caught them occassionally on spinnerbaits and crankbaits, never while working a bass jig.