Some think crappie fishing on Pymatuning could benefit from regulation

Change might be coming to the crappie fishing at Pymatuning Reservoir.

It doesn't appear it would be universally loved.

Currently, there are no minimum size or creel limits for crappies on the 13,920-acre lake that centers Pymatuning State Park and straddles the Pennsylvania-Ohio border in Crawford County. There's no closed season on the species, either. Anglers can keep as many crappies as they want each and every day, year-round, regardless of size.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and Ohio Division of Wildlife, which jointly manage the lake, want to change that.

The agencies are considering putting “panfish enhancement” regulations in place. They would limit anglers to keeping 20 crappies per day. They would have to be at least 9 inches long.

The idea is to “produce more quality-size crappies by protecting young crappies from harvest and protecting weak year classes from over-exploitation,” according to the commission.

“There's potential to save a significant number of fish with a 9-inch size limit,” said Tim Wilson, a fisheries biologist in the commission's area 1 office in Linesville. “We think it will dramatically improve the population.”

There are lots of crappies in the lake now, he said, though not as many as even just a short time ago.

Trapnet surveys show the population peaked in 2012, Wilson said. It's fallen by about half since.

Fishing pressure, by comparison, has remained high.

Commission estimates are that, on the average weekend day in 2001, anglers were devoting almost no time to crappie fishing, instead focusing on walleyes and other species. Interest in the fish has increased sharply since, however.

By 2014-15, according to commission data, the average weekend day brought nearly 1,200 hours of targeted crappie fishing.

Pressure on the fish has remained high even as populations have shrunk, Wilson said.

There have been two results, he said. First, more people are targeting crappies, but they're catching fewer. Catch rates in 2014 were a quarter of what they were in 2011.

The second is that they're getting less particular.

“Unless there are a lot of big crappies, they'll willingly harvest the small ones,” Wilson said.

That, more than anything, is driving down their numbers, and the number of bigger fish in particular, he said.

“There's a tremendous amount of smaller fish. But there's a shortage of bigger fish,” said commission president Ed Mascharka of Erie County.

Ohio biologists first suggested more conservative regulations. The Division of Wildlife manages its best crappie waters with a 30-fish creel limit, with all keepers having to be at least 9 inches long, said Chris Amen, a biologist in its district three office in Akron.

“Not only are our anglers pretty happy with those regulations, but those lakes seem to be performing very well,” Amen said.

Pymatuning, he said, already ranks “absolutely near the top” among Ohio's best crappie waters. It has lots of fish, and growth rates there are better than average, so fish reach legal size quickly.

Tighter rules would do a lot to maintain that, Amen said.

“A couple of guys could go out and fill a cooler and still bring home lots of fish. But the benefits we would get in terms of safeguarding the population would be very beneficial,” Amen said.

When Ohio officials suggested a change, the Fish and Boat Commission asked that they survey anglers to see how they felt, Wilson said.

In 2014, creel clerks did just that, talking to nearly 400 anglers on the lake, Amen said. Eighty-nine percent said they'd support a creel limit, 88 percent a 9-inch minimum size.

Initial reactions to the proposal here last week were more mixed.

Mike Tullai, an Andover, Ohio, resident who's on the board of the Linesville-based Pymatuning Lake Association, said he and most of the group's members fully support 20-fish, 9-inch minimum size rules.

That's because too many people keep every crappie they catch at Pymatuning, he said, with the result being “big ones are very few and far between.”

“They should have done this a long time ago,” Tullai said. “It will only make the fishing better.”

Bill Thall, on the other hand, fully opposes the proposed regulations. A resident of Jamestown and president of the Pymatuning Sportsmen's Club, he agreed Pymatuning's crappies face lots of pressure.

But he said “decent” fish — which he described as 8 to 10 inches — remain plentiful. Rules that make anglers throw some of those back “will kill this place,” he said.

“I really don't see where they're coming from. Most of my friends, the guys up here, they don't have trouble catching decent-sized fish at all,” Thall said.

“I think it will turn a lot of guys away from this lake.”

Dave Richter took a more middle stance. Son of the owner of Richter's Bait in Jamestown, he said he and dad catch a lot of nice crappies, up to 12 and 14 inches, pretty regularly. They throw a lot of fish back, too, though.

Not everyone has that opportunity, he said, and that may color opinions.

“Me personally, I wouldn't mind it. But other people who maybe don't get to fish as often, they may feel differently,” Richter said.

Fish and Boat Commission officials will hold a public meeting April 19 to solicit public comment on the possible change. If they decide to move forward, some technicalities will need to be worked out.

The commission's original idea was to have the new rules go into effect Jan. 1, 2017.

That might be difficult to accomplish, said Laurie Shepler, chief counsel for the commission.

Another potential problem is that the commission's counterparts in Ohio don't set their regulations until March, so the two agencies would have to figure out how to make their rules go into effect simultaneously, executive director John Arway said.

Andy Shiels, director of the commission's bureau of fisheries, said they'll spend the next few weeks figuring out those possibilities.

“We'll do our best to sort this out before the April 19 public meeting and be armed with what we need to have,” Shiels said.

Bob Frye is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at bfrye@tribweb.com or via Twitter @bobfryeoutdoors.

Article by Bob Frye,
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