Tony Adams guides on Alabama’s Lake Eufaula where the creel limit is 30
crappie per person, per day. However, many states have chosen to lower
crappie daily creel limits to 15, or even less. (Photo: Richard Simms, CrappieNOW Editor)
Do Lower Limits Equal Bigger Crappie?
by Brent Frazee
Picture those old photos of fishermen posing with massive piles of crappie. Those of us who are old enough remember places with a daily creel limit of 60 crappie per person, or even no limits!
Those days are over. States that once allowed generous daily creel limits are reducing them in an effort to prevent overharvest, or in some cases, to encourage bigger crappie.

If you live just for the thump of a big crappie on the end of your line, you’re in luck. If you live for the sizzle of fish filets in a frying pan, not so much.
We spoke with Al Lindner, the legendary Minnesota angler of In-Fisherman fame.
His home state features some of the most restrictive crappie regulations in the nation. In most of Minnesota, fishermen are limited to only 10 crappies per day. And at 50 lakes, the limit is even more restrictive – five per day.
That reduces the size of the fish fry, but it definitely helps the catch-and-release fishing, Lindner said.
“You look at a lot of these lakes and they’re at their peak,” said Lindner, who lives near Brainerd, Minn. “We’re catching 13-to-15-inch crappie, which is phenomenal.
“Without a doubt, we’ve seen an increase in the size of the crappie we catch. You’re limiting the harvest, that’s all it is.”
There are other factors, according to Jeff Reed, a fisheries research biologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. He also credits longer growing seasons and a trend toward clearer water, which encourages better weed growth. But he acknowledges that limits are part of that overall equation.
“Our 10-fish limit is one of the most restrictive in the country,” Reed said. “But we feel that it is working. Especially on some of our smaller lakes that get hit pretty hard, a reduced creel helps produce bigger fish while still preventing overharvest.”
That reduced creel in Minnesota is nothing new. The statewide crappie limit was last changed in 2003, when the DNR dropped it from 15 to 10. Before that, the daily limit had been 15 since the 1930s.
“Our most recent survey of Minnesota anglers when asked a hypothetical question about reducing the bag limit (statewide) from 10 to 5, we had slightly more than 50 percent of respondents indicate they would support that reduction,” Reed said. “Again, this is hypothetical, but it does demonstrate that anglers are accepting of reduced bag limits. “
That amounts to making crappie fishing almost a catch-and-release fishery, some fishermen grumble. But in a state, such as Minnesota, that has plenty of other fish that make for excellent table fare, biologists and many fishermen say you have to look at your aggregate catch for the day, not just one species.
MINNESOTA ISN’T ALONE
Nebraska and other states are similarly restrictive as to what anglers can keep.
For instance, in Nebraska fishermen are allowed a daily creel limit of 15 panfish, an aggregate of black and white crappie, bluegills, yellow perch, green sunfish, rock bass, redear sunfish, pumpkinseed, orange-spotted sunfish, and hybrid bluegills.
That limit used to be 30 (in aggregate), but officials decided to change it to protect small bodies of water that get a lot of fishing pressure.

“We’ll get a lake that has hot fishing for a while and it just gets pounded,” said Daryl Bauer of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. “In some cases, the fishing pressure really has an effect.
“Our panfish limit is restrictive, but 15 fish is still plenty for a fish fry.”
That’s especially true if there are several fishermen in the boat, each adding his or her limit to the total, Bauer said.
Other states have reached the conclusion that crappie, though prolific, don’t exist in endless supply.
Missouri was one of the first states to realize that “one-size-fits-all” limits wasn’t the best way manage crappie populations. Though some smaller bodies of water still allow fishermen a daily limit of 30, large reservoirs such as Truman, Lake of the Ozarks, Pomme de Terre and Stockton have 15-fish creels.
“One of the challenges of making a statewide limit in Missouri is that populations across the state are quite different,” said Chris Brooke, a fisheries biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. “Truman and Lake of the Ozarks, for example, get a lot of fishing pressure, and they’re year-round fisheries.
“Creel limits are a way of managing those populations.”
Both Truman and Lake of the Ozarks also have 9-inch size limits, which were set in 1983 to encourage anglers to utilize slow-growing populations of black crappies.
“We have black crappies in some parts of Truman that will never grow to 10 inches,” Brooke said. “By setting a 9-inch limit, we are letting people keep some of those fish.”
The limits must be playing a part in the strength of Truman’s crappie population, though many factors such as floods, good growth rates and fishing pressure also contribute.
Based on surveys, Brooke says the population of 9- to 10-inch crappies in Truman is the highest it’s been in years.
In 2008 Tennessee reduced the crappie creel limit from 30 to 15 in most major reservoirs. Biologists made it clear that they didn’t expect the reduced limit to result in more crappie or larger crappie. Then-Chief of Fisheries, Bill Reeves, said, “Reduced creel limits simply spread the available catch around to more people.”
A TARGETED APPROACH
Even the famous crappie lakes of Mississippi aren’t immune from the effects of heavy fishing pressure. Last year we shared the dramatic news of creel limit reductions on Mississippi’s most popular crappie lakes due to increased use of forward-facing sonar (FFS).
Fisheries biologists there conducted a three-year study in which they found that FFS sonar was having an effect on the harvest of older, bigger crappie at the nationally known Big Four reservoirs– Grenada, Enid, Sardis, and Arkabutla—they again adjusted limits – dropping the daily creel from 15 to10 per angler and 25 per boat with three or more fishermen.
“In our study, we found that the number of anglers using live sonar went from 20 percent in 2021 to 70 percent in 2023,” said fisheries biologist Keith Meals. “There was just an explosion in what I consider pretty expensive technology.
“When Livescope first came out, I said, ‘We don’t need to worry about this. There aren’t a lot of people who will be afford to buy something like this.’
“But I was wrong.”
It remains to be seen if other states will follow Mississippi’s lead. But one thing remains probable: the days of keeping huge numbers of crappie are over.
In 2020 CrappieNOW Magazine conducted an extensive survey of anglers’ opinions about creel and size limits in their state. You can see the results of that survey here (PDF Document).
Brent Frazee is an award-winning freelance writer from a suburb of Kansas City, Mo. He was the outdoors editor for The Kansas City Star for 36 years before retiring in 2016. He continues to freelance for websites, magazines, newspapers and tourism agencies.