# Cowan today



## Guest (May 7, 2006)

I caught over 50 crappies, only 2 over 9". Does anyone sense a problem here? If they run in cycles they have been stuck in the "small cycle' for 3 years now.


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## Sleprock (Dec 16, 2005)

cought small ones also. big ones are two smart


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## moose (Apr 14, 2004)

the problem is they need a size limit. they did 9 inch limit at deercreek and everything caught this year has been over 10". 




moose


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## TheKing (Apr 15, 2004)

I have been there three times this year so far. And most of our fish have been those 8 inchers. There are a lot of fish in that size range.
But - 
There are locations and presentations that get the 11-13 inch range. Numbers of these for me ran about 5-10 per day of fishing. And some of the spring tourney players did very well this year.
It's hard to tell if a size limit will improve things in the long run. There are some experiments in other lakes. Delware is showing good results, but there are still lots of dinks there.


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## BITE-ME (Sep 5, 2005)

I wish the 9" limit on crappie was statewide. 

I lived in Columbus for about six years and had the opportunity to fish both Deleware and Alum Creek quite frequently. My family also has a place at Indian Lake (which is noted for its panfishing), so I've spent a fair amount of time fishing it as well. My experince has been that the central Ohio resivoirs with the 9" limit beat Indian in size & quantity - hands down. Don't know how much weight my conclusion carries, as I have only fished crappie in the Ohio lakes mentioned above.


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## lovecrappies21 (Jun 4, 2005)

when i went a few days ago, i actually got ten keepers, most were ten inches, but I was also there form 6am-730pm. except i agree, there needs to be a size limit at this lake, i think it be one of ohios greatest crappie fisheries if theyd let em grow.


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## lovecrappies21 (Jun 4, 2005)

another thing about cowan, I'd see people sitting on the bank cathing those crappie, and theyd put them in a fish basket. Now what the hell are you going to do with 4/5 inch crappie?


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## diemakerbc (Apr 15, 2004)

you got my vote all of the state lakes should be that way.as for the 4and5inchers my bet they will in up in someones pond.good luck proveing it.a size limit would these people from taking these small fish.


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## dbuchanan (Feb 16, 2005)

I fish Cowen about 3-4 times a month mostly for sauger and muskie. This year I've noticed numerous times people dumping crappie, most no bigger than 4-5 inches, in a bucket. I dont care much for crappie fishing but thats rediculous. Some people have the mentality that they have to keep everything they catch. It makes sense that there should be a reasonable size limit set.


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## Guest (May 8, 2006)

Thats my point exactly. We Must have limits. On a positive note I saw a dnr guy there doing a fish survey so maybe his data will show this. I wanted to talk to him but he never surveyed me. Almost everyone there was keeping those little dink crappie, while I threw them back. Just think those would be "keeper" crappie in a few years if we jsut had limits. WHAT CAN WE DO?


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## fished-out (Dec 20, 2005)

Don't want to start an argument (because I happen to believe in size limits), but was talking to a fish biologist about crappie size and he told me it was a function of forage species and spawning success. If the main forage happens to be gizzard shad (alot of our lakes have them), then the shad spawn after the crappie, usually from May to July. That means crappie feed on them the following year as they prepare to spawn IF they're the right size. Apparently, the later the shad spawn the prior year, the better. If they spawn later, they'll be that 2" size that crappie like. If they spawn early, they'll be too big. Indian has some of the biggest black crappie I've ever seen, and they're there in quantity. Buckeye has a bunch of 10 inchers, not as many big fish. Both are shallow canal lakes with lots of lilly pads and dock areas. East Fork is a deep lake with tons of small fish, but also a large number of big fish too. The forage base in probably the difference.

I think a slot limit is better, but I don't know how you'd get people to abide by it. Slot might be 9-11 inches. Anything under or over, keep it. In between, put it back. A 9" limit is the next best thing.

fished-out


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## whitetail (Apr 16, 2006)

I agree wit the size limit, I took to cowen my son thurs, my doughter sat, and wife sun and we threw back anything under 10'' WE were on the big ones and my doughter cought a 14 1/8'' crappie :B that one is going on her wall and it is big enough for the fish ohio fish award her first at age 6. They were in a cove that I found with the water temp 4degre higher than the mane lake on a 2' going to 4' straight drop and up on the banks in the skinny with over hanging shrubs.

I also seen people with cast nets I was not close enough to see what they were keeping but on some other post some one saw someone keeping bass ect. so if you go there keep an eye out and if you see this and can tell that they are doing it report it!!! wildlife officer Matthew Roberts (937)3725639 ext 5206


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## born2fish (May 10, 2005)

Talked to an ODNR guy last year about the size of the crappie in Cowen. He also seemed to think that there were too many crappie for the amount of food in the lake. This is similar to what you will see in a pond if it is not fished enough (and why they recommend a minimum of 2 acres to even introduce crappie into a pond). 

The guy I talked to said that the little dink 5-6 inch crappie are mature adults. With an adequate food source, a 1 year old crappie will be much bigger. I rarely even see a 5-6 inch crappie at other lakes.

Any way you look at it, Cowan is out of balance and something needs to be done.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

I am saying all of this with no experience on Cowan whatsoever so perhaps it is off-base for Cowan. However, this is my take on the waters that I fish in my area.

I think to a large extent the crappie size is a factor of its environment like was mentioned by Fished-out. Although I hate to see folks taking all of the under 9" fish as much as the next person the fact is that every year people are able to catch an awful lot of the 8-9" fish. I would think that if the harvest of these smaller fish was that impactful on the population that the number of fish caught would show it after successive years of larger harvests. I am not supporting the harvest of all of the small fish but rather questioning the extent of damage that it may have. If you leave all of those smaller fish in the water then you have that much more of a draw on your forage base. Would the forage base be able to sustain larger numbers of crappies to the point of producing the desired growth? As was mentioned the 7-9" fish can not feed on the larger shad so where do they find the bait to feed them all?

Another point that I would like to make is that I do not believe because we spend a whole day or a few days for that matter catching all smaller fish that it means that there are no larger fish. If you read everyone's crappie reports across the entire state that last several days you will see the most of the waters producing mostly smaller fish right now. My suggestion is to be patient and try other locations, depths, structures, etc. You may find that the larger fish are not in the area that you thought they were. I think the large females will be turning on here fairly soon and they will probably have me wondering where they have been all season.


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## TheKing (Apr 15, 2004)

Interesting points. Does not sound as simple as I first thought. Some lakes would benefit by reducing the dinks, some could support a size limit for the long run. I thought there was a computer program that the state funded that could predict the right thing for a certain lake?


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## Sleprock (Dec 16, 2005)

i have fished cowan a lot on the banks in the last few years.

just got a canoe. have cought crappie all over lake so far but probably nothing over 10". I like cowan though because there are other speices in the lake like the catfish, bass,old muskie?, saugeye, carp i am sure and I have cought smallmouth under the dam. perhaps we should leave the larger prediters we catch for the next few years. that would probably clear out some of them small crappie.and get ya some bigger saugeye, i don't eat fish but keep all the small crappie & blues ya get leave some bigones. anybody catching saugeye down there& love the cats at cowan.


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## lastv8 (Oct 11, 2004)

lovecrappies21 said:


> another thing about cowan, I'd see people sitting on the bank cathing those crappie, and theyd put them in a fish basket. Now what the hell are you going to do with 4/5 inch crappie?


I would also like to know what the hell you do with a 4/5 inch crappie


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## Muddy Cat (Nov 5, 2005)

There are bigger crappie in Cowan. In my opinion there are too many crappie as disscussed earlier in this thread. If you want to catch some of the larger fish I suggest you fish some unusualy areas. Perhaps the larger fish are not in the typical cover that most fish for crappie. I participated in the spring crappie fling put on by the SS marina. My father In Law and I pulled in about 35 crappie. The rule was that only 7 fish could be kept and and that they must have been greater then 7 in. We only caught about three fish that were under the 7 in restriction. the majority of the crappie caught were in the 8 in range. We did well enough to pull off a 2nd place victory with seven nice fish mostly close to 12in weighing 5.38lb.

That day I had talked alot to the first place team in the tournament. One of the winners is a member of OGF. They took first with 5.55lb.

My point is that there are big crappie in cowan and try fishing for them in different ways. Start thinking like a big crappie and not a baby crappie. Use a little larger baits and if your fishing were all the other crappie fisherman are then you are not in the right spot. Hopefully I made my point without giving up too many of my sercrets.

Oh yeah we did keep our seven fish. That was plenty for my father in law and I. I would not waist my time cleaning a fish under 9 in.


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## Guest (May 9, 2006)

I know Cowan is very capable of producing large numbers of BIG crappie. Just 4 years back the AVERAGE crappie in there was probably 11-12 inches, with bigger ones and some smaller ones mixed in. The lake is there, the habitat is there, the big crappies however are not. I would bet alot of money put some size and possesion limits on this lake and it could be Slab haven. Its sad our great state of Ohio dnr wont do a thing about it either.


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## whitetail (Apr 16, 2006)

Muddy Catt you are right when we cought slabs over the weekend i seen a total of 3 other boats, also we did catch alot of dinks also but a lot of dinks is much more fun than zero! As for the bass I have no Idea wear they are did not find any, but last year the ones i did catch were nice..


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## Muddy Cat (Nov 5, 2005)

I Give the DNR credit in a lot of areas. I have observed on this forum people complain about bass, now crappie and soon I am sure that it will be some other game fish that people swear that the populations are small and dropping. 

A officer from the DNR was at the crappie tournament and in a boat taking a survey from the fisherman who participated. The DNR is listening to us fishermen. I would support a 9 in limit at cowen and I believe that if enough people tell the DNR that rather then telling there buddy on the internet then maybe a restriction would be put in place.

Wildlife District Five
1076 Old Springfield Pike
Xenia, Ohio 45385
(937) 372-9261

So lets support our DNR and let them know what we would want them to do. That might be more productive then complaining.


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## Guest (May 9, 2006)

> So lets support our DNR and let them know what we would want them to do. That might be more productive then complaining


Im not complaining just preaching the truth! 

I have emailed and talked to the dnr about varius topics and im pretty sure others have also and I havent seen anything done yet.

Im sure most of you on here dont understand where Im coming from and the ones who do are few and far between. As I mentioned in my previous post I also saw the guy doing surveys, and I agree this is a positive step. But surveys arnt changing fishermens mind sets to responsibly keeping fish. As silly as it may sound, we need a revolution.


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## TommyV (Aug 31, 2005)

I just fished Cowan today and caught a lot of those dinks. I was shocked to see 7" fish with bellies bulging with eggs. I am not sure that I have ever seen that. Regardless, I don' think establishing a size limit would do much to change the length of the Cowan fish. I have found over the years that crappies are cyclical and right now we are in the "plentiful but small" period. My guess is that by this fall or next spring we will see few crappies but with more size.


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## Muddy Cat (Nov 5, 2005)

Again I would support a 9 in limit at cowen. That is about the only this that the DNR could do. I base that on the fact that Delaware Lake is doing very well with its 9 in restriction. I do however feel that overall is will not matter.

Crappies thrive at Cowan the population is huge. I have yet to hear anyone complan about the numbers they have been catching. We are discussing a fish that can have up to 30,000 fry each time that they spawn. If the population keeps growing then there will be a problem with the food supply for all fish species and maybe there is already. After the die off we will have small populations of big fish and they will start the chain over again. I believe that a 9in limit will speed up this cycle because it will keep the populations growing. 


This is just my 2 cents. I guess I am not seeing what the DNR can do other then a size restriction and I just do not think that is a ultimate answer. After all the DNR claims that ACTON and COWAN are also excellent bass water but there populations just do not seem to be there and a 15in limit on bass is in place on both lakes.


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## Bassnpro1 (Apr 6, 2004)

just to let everyone know, a size limit would not work on cowan until the smaller crappies get thinned out and the forage base coincides with the crappies so that they can grow. these are adult crappies most people are catching at 8 inches. throwing them back will not help that adult 8 inch crappie grow and i would doubt that the fish would ever touch nine inches. At this point in the cycle a size limit would more harmful than helpful. This is why only a select few lakes have the 9 in minimum. And before you don't think I know what I'm talking about, I'm a third year fisheries biologist at Ohio State and hopefully a future employee of the DNR. I have worked with those surveyers, it is a cool job. And they do study the data that they get on lakes and make decisions based on that data. That data is also used when they decide which lakes they are going to electrofish, also cool. The DNR gets alot done with the minimum funds that they have to dedicate to researching our lakes. Everybody wishes that they could have a couple electro teams out there, but they can't hit all spots in every lake every year and it takes a while to get around to them all in Ohio.


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## Rooster (Apr 8, 2004)

OK, following your logic, wouldnt a slot limit be the best solution for crappie at cowan? Why cant the ODNR place a slot limit on crappie?

Many people on this site have sent Emails, called the ODNR, and went to meetings with many suggestions. So, many people are doing more than just complaining. 

I will give the ODNR credit for the new catfish limits (I think that the movement even got a start on this site). If they would protect our river smallies the same way that they protect the Lake Erie smallies, I might even start to have a favorable opinion of the ODNR.


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## twistertail (Apr 10, 2004)

Hey rooster I know there is at least one creek that they are protecting the smallies. There is a big section of Darby creek where you can only keep one smallie over 18".


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## whitetail (Apr 16, 2006)

Bassnpro1

There is no way that you can rule out crappie that dont touch 9 inches in cowan that is impossable! that is like saying that the ohio river water is safe to drink! I respect that you are going to school but remember mother nature is always changing and you cannot say that there is no way to catch a 9+ crappie in cowan


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

I think finding a lake in Ohio that can consistently produce large crappies all year long is a tall order. It seems that most every lake that I have fished in the state for crappie generally give up a huge number of small crappie to every large one. I am sure that some lakes are better than others but most trips, even successful trips probably result in at least a 10:1 ratio of non-keepers to keepers. But I have had plenty of days where nearly everything was small. I guess if you go the whole year without getting anything larger then you could probably figure there were very few. I just know that the last few times that I have been out I have been working hard to find any with size and I know that the lake that I fish has them in there. I am reading an awful lot of reports that sound like mine so I am thinking it is a common thing for the big ones to come up missing for a while this time of the year. Delaware has been mentioned several times here as a model. Take a look at the results of the tourney last weekend. They did not get big weights on the weigh-in and I think a lot struggled to bring any keepers to the scales. So did the 9" limit make a difference there? I have not fished Delaware in a few years so I can not judge it either way. It would be interesting to hear that answer from someone who is a regular slab man on Delaware.


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

whitetail said:


> Bassnpro1
> 
> There is no way that you can rule out crappie that dont touch 9 inches in cowan that is impossable! that is like saying that the ohio river water is safe to drink! I respect that you are going to school but remember mother nature is always changing and you cannot say that there is no way to catch a 9+ crappie in cowan


 I think what Bassnpro1 meant by his statement (feel free to correct me Bassnpro1 if I get this wrong) was that those fish have reached the adult stage and will most likely not grow much more. That could be largely due to lack of sufficient forage for them to grow at a desirable rate. The same situation occurs to fish in a pond if the population is such that they are "stunted". The timing of the shad hatch is something that I never considered in this and it makes sense. If the shad are too large for the small crappie to feed on then the amount of food available for a large number of fish could be limited. Again, I do not know the conditions at Cowan but I am discussing this from a hypothetical perspective. At least for me it seems to make some sense.


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## whitetail (Apr 16, 2006)

All I am saying is that just because you are catching small fish does not mean that there are not any large fish and for electro shocking, just because the formula for calculating fish population says it cant be is not always true, there is too many variables in nature. I am by all means an expert but the real answer is sometimes the one you are overlooking, Cowan may be over populated but everybody keeps going back, why? Its not because of small fish. Just my opinion


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

whitetail said:


> All I am saying is that just because you are catching small fish does not mean that there are not any large fish


It sounds like we are really thinking along the same lines here.


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## fished-out (Dec 20, 2005)

Lots of good discussion here. Seems like we know the following:
1) There are 7" crappie in Cowan that are spawning--i.e., pretty mature. Doesn't mean they can't grow larger, but I've seen other lakes like this and it's a tall order.
2) Small mature crappie generally result from a lack of food--forage fish generally. The studies say that until they reach a certain size (I think it's in the 5-7" range), they eat mostly insects and other smaller forage. At some point, they switch to fish--in Ohio lakes, that's mostly gizzard shad. But the shad have to be the right size for the crappie to feed effectively at that 7-9" size.
3) Too many crappie for the forage base can result from a couple things--too few predators (bass, etc), a really strong year class of crappie, a bad or wrong spawn on shad, etc. That's why crappie seem to go through cycles on most lakes. For example, I think Buckeye's in a cycle right now. The fish we've been catching are all about 10". Yes, they're bigger ones in there and we catch them occasionally, but this year class is really strong. When we filleted them, their stomach contents were---spiders! Not a shad anywhere. And these were the skinniest 10" blacks I've ever seen. But last year, you couldn't catch 10" fish--they were all 8.5 inches. I think it's the same year class.
4) If I had to guess, I'd say it's a combination of factors--not enough predators to keep the crappie numbers down, and not enough forage to support the survivers. A 9" size limit may not help Cowan--in fact, it could do the opposite--even more of those 7-8" mature fish spawning, depleting the forage base even further. A slot limit may work better, because you preserve the large fish--say 11" and bigger--and get rid of those mature small fish--under 8".
5) If you want bigger panfish in any lake, increase the predator population--put stricter limits on bass, etc. The best farm ponds for panfish I've ever fished had tons of small bass and the largest bluegills and crappie--and I don't mean 8" bluegill, I mean 10-12 inches. essentially swimming dinner plates! The rule on those ponds (a buddy of mine manages them for panfish)--keep no bass, only panfish.

Anyway, just some thoughts. As I recall, Cowan used to have the reputation as being one of the best bass lakes in the area. I don't hear that so much anymore, and I have to wonder if it's tied to the decline in crappie size.

fished-out


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## Guest (May 9, 2006)

There are plenty of small 2-3 inch shad in cowan for the crappies to eat. I dont think this is the problem. I am pretty sure those 6-7 inch crappie would grow big fast if they were given a chance to.


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