That's a fatty fish, I was thinking of possibly making some structure and maybe dropping it into Leland because my friend has some trees he needs to cut from his house, kind of wondering if it would worsen the problem of that water though. Do you know if alders are good crappie structure, seems like they'd work well.

Alders are NOT the stuff to use, as it will not last at all, use swamp willow and make sure it's no higher than 4' or it will not hold up well to wave action or snagging gear. If you do make "brushpiles" keep them somewhat small I would say 3'x3' would be perfect. Willow will give you about a 5 year use, do not drop them in the shallow parts of the lake, nothing but trouble for other fishermen after bass and surface trolling for trout. Find any natural structure on the bottom in 20' of water or so and plant close by the natural structure and gps your drops, be environmentally sensative about what you use for weighing down the brush and make sure you use enough weight or amazingly you will find your pile will migrate... Brushpiles have been proven to provide not only cover for juvinile fish but more importantly the surface area up off the bottom allows for a growing surface for micro zoo plankton species that feed the fry, that attract bigger fish, and ultimately creates a very healthy fishery. That said however does not lessen the need for self regulating the need to keep every fish as some are known to do. Return of the largest catch will reap more benefits than any other means. I believe there are 16" and possibly larger slabs in this lake and at present time the fishery is in an upward and healthy trend. On the other hand I have noticed over the past decade that there is something that has gotten into the flesh of the perch, I believe there is a connection with the blue green algea phenomanon that started to appear about the same time ago. If you fillet out a perch from this lake note the silvery speckles in the flesh, the Crappie do not have this and not all the Perch have it either but the majority of them do, so I believe it is something they are eating. I have been fishing this lake for near 30 years and have seen a lot of change, most for the worse, but the introduction of Crappie has been a wonder to behold. Klahowya!

Yeah if I was going to drop them I was going to do it in the 20-30' of water probably towards some grass I've seen on the fishfinder if I can find it again, I need to bring the GPS out and mark these areas. Guess I won't do it though, I was just going to do it since he had a bunch of alders, not any willows or any kind of brushy stuff around that I saw yesterday. Like you said though about some people keeping every fish, it might hurt the crappie fishery if someone found it and fished it everyday taking fish from it.

BMGW- When you say you have a strict 10" keeper slot, but was catching 13-14"-ers and releasing 'em, are you saying you keep fish 10" and under or right at 10"? You let the "bigger" ones go, so to speak?