2017 Crappie Regs for Bald Eagle State Park/Foster Joseph Sayers Lake

[Creekside]

From 2017 Reg book.
"•Black and White Crappie: Daily creel limit is 10 (combined crappie species). No more than 5 may be greater than 9 inches in size. Total panfish daily creel limit may not exceed 50 when other panfish species are in the creel (see inland regulations and Panfish Enhancement Special Regulations applicable to other panfish)"

[Icenutter]

So their lifting the 9 inch limit on crappies?

[Creekside]

Yes. They are trying to thin out the smaller ones and keep more slabs in the lake. Which is why you can't keep more than 5 that are over 9 inches.

[Jabbsalot]

Guess I'll keep my five over 9, then doube down on gills! You don't get much meat on whites under 9 inches, can't see those  regs gettin rid of the massive amounts of small crappies in this lake. Maybe I'm wrong, just sayin.

[deer george]

The crappie in that lake are very thin and under 9" there's not much for the table ,but I think it is a step in the wright direction as I think allot of guys will keep 10 of those smaller 8" or so fish and if you have fished that lake you seem to get allot of 81/2" or so fish. I guess time will tell. I have fished that lake since the start and the perch seem to be averaging  smaller as well. Maybe I just can't catch those bigger fish?

[Creekside]

The 2016 trap net survey at the lake netted 2779 crappie. 2300 were between 6 and 8 inches. Limit the number of slabs taken and reduce some of the 6-8" ones and it has the potential to turn into a nice slab lake. The food is there to grow some nice ones, but not when there is competition from all those little ones.

[dbowman]

This is a great slab lake, have taken a lot of slabs, but did not start catching them until about 2 to 3 years after they put the 9 inch limit on them. My opinion is that if you don't give them a chance to grow up there will never be any big ones in there.

[deer george]

25 years ago or so you could catch plenty of gills in the 8.5" range, perch in the 11" range and the crappie were mostly about what they are now but not as abundant (imo). The perch are smaller than in the past as are the gills for the most part and the crappie seemed to have taken over the lake as far as numbers go. The crappie seem to be very thin compared to other lakes that I fish, not sure of the answer but I have fished that lake seince it was built. That's just my observation.

[Icemole]

 A better answer would be a 20 fish limit with only 1 over 9". Then after a couple of years you drop it down to 10 fish limit (if needed) but maybe increase the size to 10" with 1 over. Then you would have the dilemma of either keeping that 11" or hoping to get a 3-4lber  .