NEWS RELEASE

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

June 16, 1998

CONTACT: Joe Jenkins (904) 985-7880 or Lt. Joy M. Hill (352) 732-1225

NEW CRAPPIE REGS EFFECTIVE JULY 1

Freshwater anglers take note! Effective July 1 there will be a new statewide bag limit on crappie (speckled perch) limiting the number of fish anglers may keep to 25 per day. The statewide 50 panfish limit still applies to bluegill, redbreast sunfish, redear sunfish (shellcracker), spotted sunfish (stumpknockers), warmouth, flier, mud sunfish, longear sunfish and shadow bass, individually or in total, but crappie will now be excluded from this aggregate and put into its own, individual group.

In another new rule, which applies only to Lake Monroe in Seminole and Volusia counties, all crappie less than 12 inches in length must be immediately released. This new regulation is being implemented to create a quality black crappie fishery on Lake Monroe - the only one currently in Central Florida.

Lake Monroe has historically been a popular crappie fishing lake and has the potential to become a quality crappie fishing lake partly because of the establishment of new vegetation and improved water quality.

"This excellent habitat, combined with the new 12-inch minimum size limit and the statewide 25 bag limit for crappie, could turn Lake Monroe into the quality crappie fishing lake it has the potential of becoming," said Joe Jenkins, fisheries biologist with the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission (FWC).

Studies conducted on Lake Monroe by the FWC show that approximately 70 percent of crappie kept by anglers in 1997 were less than 12 inches long, and about 34 percent collected there by biologists with electro fishing techniques were 12 or more inches long.

Electro fishing Lake Monroe has also indicated that there are lots of crappie between 10 and 12 inches long which should grow to the 12-inch length requirement by this fall.

"What all of this tell us is that limiting the harvest of crappie to fish under 12 inches long should allow more of them to grow to 12 inches or longer, which will ultimately create a better fishing experience for anglers," said Jenkins.