Crappie Day At Big Bear Lake 7/17

[M@M]

Sorry no pics.( I always seem to forget, caught up in the fishing) Just a quick report. Between my son, girlfriend and myself, caught lot's of fish...I was happy...... lots of action.......kept 30 to filet 8-10in..... No big ones.....No boat, fishing off the docks..... Had a great time camping (at Pine Knot) ...... only got to fish one day......Best we have done in Big Bear out of 3 trips......learning new spots has paid off this trip....had a nice fish fry......sorry no pics.......didn't want to be just a Lurker....I promise to take some pics for any future reports. :LOL:

Using crappie jigs,,florescent green, silver ,yellow and orange

[tagg27]

WTG....Love catching those panfish. Always nice when the kids are on the fish.

[blackberg]

nice, have ot head up there again,

what docks did you hit?

-bb

[yakfu]

For years this has been a consistant Crappie Lake, but I have yet to see the biggher ones...I wonder if there are just to many for them to grow bigger or if the fact that it's a mountain lake...any theorist out there?

[etaggart]

Good Q, Yakfu! I've been wondering the same - environment keeps'em small (not warm enough for long enough) or too many predators, small breed, or are there croppie-lunkers hiding out. Would be curious to hear from someone who actually knows something.

Saw some wicked croppie pix posted from Lake Perris by QB7940. Goes to show they can grow big.

If I had to put my money on the table, I'd suggest it's the cold water cycle in BBL. Perris is mostly warm (and really warm) all year. BBL gets a solid top freeze each year for a bit and I assume the warmest parts of the lake bottom out just below 40 (maybe even the lower 30s) at the coldest. Not sure what croppie do when it gets cold - die, sleep, whatever, but that could easily limit size.

And ... I finally get to come back up this weekend. No family obligations, no work, just time to play with the wife, watch movies, oh, and fish fish fish. Not yet sure if I'll try to work bass by the Observatory or trout and croppie closer to the west end. Early morning tubing most Sat and Sun. Holler out for ET if you see a dork in a blue fishcat, camo hat and fly rod.

Cheers,

Eric

[Cameron]

The big trout are cruzin the surface by the boom line & I have seen some biggins. I havent been out much but after this full moon goes away I will get back out . May see ya this weekend Eric & enjoy ur time up here. Maybe next week get to have my fish taco day.

[christainmetalhead909]

awesome man i still have not caught a crappie at big bear and i have been there plenty of times. wtg on the slabs.

[QB7940]

@yakfu

Im a fisheries management major at the University of Hawaii, heres a link to the research we use when talking about Crappie. I think all fisherman would enjoy reading this paper http://www.nwrc.usgs.gov/wdb/pub/hsi/hsi-006.pdf

Page nine gives some brief info on growth, size.

This is my own input.

There are some slabs in big bear, but i believe they spawn, and hang out in deeper waters most of the year. Even with crappie that spawn shallow, 90% of the year they're deep.

Temperature can effect the food supply of the crappie, not so much the fish itself. Up north their baitfish can withstand harsher winter conditions, down here the baitfish dont do as well in big bear and gregory because of the cold.

Fish need to be taken out, with the food situation of both lakes, thats the route to go to improve size. gregory has the potential to become a BEAST of a crappie lake, if thats the direction dfg wanted to go.

Food is the most limiting factor.

Then again, prado regional park has crappie in it, and theres a nice population of shad there as well. but they're not huge either. (bigger than gregory though) so who knows why? :Wink:

[Natural Lefty]

QB, it's good to know you're a fisheries management major. I guess you will be heading back to Hawaii soon.

It has always been my impression that Crappies don't grow to the larger sizes unless they have lots of minnows to eat. Big Bear and Gregory don't have big schools of minnows since they don't have anything like shad. Thus, the Crappies don't grow very big there. I haven't been to Gregory this year, but it seems to me that the Crappies have actually gotten smaller over the past few years, maybe not enough Bass or fishing pressure to prevent stunting. From the reports, the ones at Big Bear are somewhat larger than last year but still not very large. When you say that Gregory has the potential to be a beast of a Crappie Lake, do you mean if they add a minnow population there?

I have no idea why they don't grow bigger at Prado, either, but I never fish there.

I don't think it's the cold water which keeps Crappies from growing larger in the mountain lakes. There are some very large Crappies in Canada and northern states.

[etaggart]

@Q8 - Great info - Thanks so much - I stand happily corrected. Please share more whenever you see something interesting to comment on!!!

Eric

[Big Bear Legal Eagle]

Thanks QB! In your opinion what do you think of introducing shad into Big Bear?

[QB7940]

Thanks QB! In your opinion what do you think of introducing shad into Big Bear?

Thats a tough question,

I dont know much about the baitfish that call big bear home already.

Threadfin Shad will probably not flourish at big bear, below water temp of 40* (most say 45* but I'll assume they're heartier), they start dying off.

Shiners however, may do just fine.


Big bear is unique in my book because of the smallmouth in the lake, I would love to see that take off, and see the fishery built around that. I'd be scared that the introduction of a good baitfish would benefit the largemouth more than the smallies, largemouths can easily outcompete them. Smallies need gravel to spawn I believe, they're a more peculiar fish all around. But competition may not be an issue at big bear, since it has good habitat. Smallies prefer to inhabit cooler deeper waters than the largemouth so they're not directly competing with each other all the time. If people could buy those plastic tubs from home depot and fill it with gravel, sink it by their docks. theres a spawning pit waiting for a smallie. the coves could be full of em in the spring in five or six years.

Large baitfish, will lead to better quality fish. A bass can spend the same amount of energy hunting down a 1 inch fish as it'll spend hunting down a 4 inch fish. But obviously get more out of the 4incher.

I really dont have much experience with that lake, so cant say much.

Everyone wants a great trout, smallmouth, largemouth and crappie fishery, thats a tall order. (but not unreasonable) Goodluck to whoever manages that lake.