# Boatload of black crappie!!!!!!



## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Turn up your sound or you will get mad!!http://youtu.be/gYcr0yj_YMU

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner


----------



## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

I just love reading the ignorant posts under the video's!!!:shifty:


----------



## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Jason said:


> I just love reading the ignorant posts under the video's!!!:shifty:


stupid people will rule the world one day....if they don't already!

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner


----------



## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

Awesome job. He raises Crappie, sells them as bait and food for large predators to eat in lakes and ponds. Thats what our biologist needs to be doing instead of stocking more predators like Stripers, Large Mouth, Peacock bass, Hybrids, Catfish and others. We need bait in our NWF Rivers to feed all these top predators. We need Gizzard shad. After 3-5 years of stocking gizzard shad into Escambia River an amazing fishery will emerge. From monster Stripers and Large mouth to mammoth catfish caught on a regular basis by all.


----------



## Cousin-it (Apr 10, 2012)

CatHunter said:


> Awesome job. He raises Crappie, sells them as bait and food for large predators to eat in lakes and ponds. Thats what our biologist needs to be doing instead of stocking more predators like Stripers, Large Mouth, Peacock bass, Hybrids, Catfish and others. We need bait in our NWF Rivers to feed all these top predators. We need Gizzard shad. After 3-5 years of stocking gizzard shad into Escambia River an amazing fishery will emerge. From monster Stripers and Large mouth to mammoth catfish caught on a regular basis by all.


Cathunter you nailed it 100% our rivers are way over fished with people taking every thing they catch home to eat from the smallest of bream ,blue gill and such.3 yrs ago Escambia was on fire the last 2 years its gone down hill.I havent see the small bait fish (food) for the top predators hardly at all in the last 2 years.


----------



## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

Cousin-it said:


> Cathunter you nailed it 100% our rivers are way over fished with people taking every thing they catch home to eat from the smallest of bream ,blue gill and such.3 yrs ago Escambia was on fire the last 2 years its gone down hill.I havent see the small bait fish (food) for the top predators hardly at all in the last 2 years.


Your comment just has me thinking.... Do you think there are more fishermen or that the ones that fish have just started keeping what they catch?.... While I think that most bream fisherman keep what they catch, I think there are actually less people fishing Escambia river than five years ago, at least for bream. I've fished it from Jim's to Hwy 4 for 40 years and it goes up and down with yearly rainfall being the biggest factor overall for the next years fishing. Lots of rain in the winter & spring = better fishing the following spring and summer. Flatheads have had an effect on the bream (and moccasin) population but not as bad as farm runoff affecting river vegetation (this started 30+ yrs ago and has stayed consistent). Many of the mussels and and shelled snails no longer exist and live vegetation (cover) is gone also. The Hurricanes in the early 2000's seemed to have hurt things but I don't know why, maybe added limbs and cover just made it harder to fish. I love the River but have moved most of my fishing North.


----------



## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

We just need to get with our local wild life officials and restore Escambia River. The first step is establishing a food source for the entire food chain. We need shad bad, shad is the missing link that supports all great body's of water.


----------



## CatCrusher (Jan 18, 2009)

CatHunter said:


> We just need to get with our local wild life officials and restore Escambia River. The first step is establishing a food source for the entire food chain. We need shad bad, shad is the missing link that supports all great body's of water.


Has it ever had shad? I've fished the from Andalusia down for 40 plus years and have never seen a shad.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk


----------



## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

sbarrow said:


> Has it ever had shad? I've fished the from Andalusia down for 40 plus years and have never seen a shad. Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk


Used to put out minnow baskets and catch shad for trot lines around mineral springs and Williams lake. Saw several sizeable schools on top in mineral springs by the old landing last September. There are a lot of crawfish in escambia river swamps. Had some family members that would rake them out for trot lines a few years ago but haven't seen it done in several years

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner


----------



## Cousin-it (Apr 10, 2012)

Try'n hard

I have only been fishing Escambia the last five years for Bass.I never keep them I always put them back.I have a lot of old timers tell me that the river has been pressured real bad the last 5 years.And from what I have seen is that the bass a
are getting harder to get the numbers that I use too.I have had great days some better that others but that is fishing.I kept a log for 3 years of water temp,moon,tides,wind,and water stain. and for the last 1 1/2 years it has just been way off between my partner and my self our average were 30-35 a trip.We have had days were we caught 60 plus.We did not fish north of the second plant very much.We were into numbers not size to me size is very few and far between on the river because of food IMO.We use to see many schools of bait fish but haven't lately and don't know why. It could be that the weather/rain and the river current being so fast lately has a effect on them.I know guys that fish north of Becks that say there are big bass up there i have been up there but never found anything bigger than I catch in the south end.1 of my buds fish Quintet lake says he wears the bream out in there but he does it with a small jon boat to get over a log in there some were to get further back. I just don't know what is going on and I try to establish a pattern every time I go out.


----------



## Try'n Hard (Oct 23, 2008)

You fish south of me. 2nd plant is old Monsanto so to me your basically fishing the delta or "fill". The bait schools there are probably not shad but alewives that don't venture much farther upstream. Cat hunter may jump in but I don't think there are many flatheads in that area which may explain the 30+ bass days that you have had. Water quality would be poorest in that area and probably a good idea to not eat bass - mercury! Which explains small size. Still catching bass is fun and anything over 20 would be good for me. Keep fishing - it'll get better or worse lol

Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner


----------



## CatHunter (Dec 31, 2008)

Try'n Hard said:


> You fish south of me. 2nd plant is old Monsanto so to me your basically fishing the delta or "fill". The bait schools there are probably not shad but alewives that don't venture much farther upstream. Cat hunter may jump in but I don't think there are many flatheads in that area which may explain the 30+ bass days that you have had. Water quality would be poorest in that area and probably a good idea to not eat bass - mercury! Which explains small size. Still catching bass is fun and anything over 20 would be good for me. Keep fishing - it'll get better or worse lol
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner


 There aren't many flatheads at all on Escambia River anymore.. Don't get me wrong they are there and some good ones. But this old River is tired; she’s been beat down and hung out to dry. 

It’s pretty bad when I got this beautiful river right here but have to drive many miles to reach fertile waters where cats hit on just about every cast.. On Escambia River the nights can be long and slow for cat-fishermen, and small and frustrating for bass fishermen. The Striper fishery that FWC tried stocking for decades was a horrible failure and waste of money; Stripers are just incidental catches on ol Escambia. As fast as they could stock them they would vanish.

There are very healthy numbers of bluegills in some areas, for whatever reasons the blue cats seems to all but disappear on the Northern stretches. FWC could care less about this sewage dump of a river, haven't you heard they are to busy with red snapper. The only fish left on the planet that anyone seems to care about anymore.

We need a massive gizzard shad stocking program. Gizzard shad are a very special bait fish that feeds the eco systems from the bottom up. They release nutrients into the water for all fingerlings to feed on. The larger gizzards will feed our large predators that are starving out up there. But the great thing is gizzards can outgrow most predators’ keeping large adult gizzards around to keep repopulating.

I think I'm going to have to go inside the system and take over Escambia River water management. Apparently they are clueless about what it takes to maintain and manage a healthy river.


----------



## Cousin-it (Apr 10, 2012)

I know,You go up river or across the river and there are so many places that you see and say man theres got to be fish there and guess what nope.
Personally I would not eat anything south of Quinntett IMO.And I wish you could have some say into the river I think you are on the right track!!!!!


----------

