LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday gave unanimous support to sending a letter to the California Fish and Game Commission seeking a reduction in the bag limit for crappie on Clear Lake.

A part of the sunfish family, the crappie is a popular game fish.

With 2016 proving an exceptional year for crappie on Clear Lake, the Lake County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee asked the supervisors to support reducing the bag limit from 25 crappie per day per angler, in possession, to 10 due to the amount of fishing for crappie that has been taking place.

Eleven years ago, the Board of Supervisors made a similar request to the state.

Terry Knight, a member of the Lake County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee and a longtime outdoors columnist for the Lake County Record-Bee, appeared on behalf of committee Chair Greg Giusti to ask for approval of the request.

Knight said that at the last committee meeting, the members discussed and unanimously passed the request to reduce the crappie limit. He said the committee believes that excess amounts of the fish are being taken by huge numbers of people right now.

As an example, he said that, as of two weeks ago, a ranger at Clear Lake State Park had reported that 800 to 1,200 crappie were being removed from the lake daily, and that in the space of one week thousands of the fish were being caught and removed.

Knight said most of the fish aren't being taken by local residents but by people from the Bay Area.

He said that two weeks ago he saw about 118 people at the shore fishing. All of them had ice chests filled with crappie of every size.

“We think it should be reduced to 10,” said Knight, adding that 10 “is plenty for anybody.”

He said the committee was asking for the supervisors to forward the letter asking for the reduced crappie bag limit – just for Lake County – to the California Fish and Game Commission.

At a committee meeting last week, Knight said local game wardens stated that they believe that crappie are being sold to Bay Area restaurants.

Board Chair Rob Brown asked if anyone has been cited for overfishing. Knight said some have been, including one group of individuals who had as many as 130 crappie. He said a California Fish and Wildlife biologist removed 26 pounds of roe – or eggs – from the fish.

Knight told the board that it's estimated that crappie are being sold for $5 for two to Bay Area restaurants, “which is illegal by the way.”

According to Knight, he said he's been out to the shoreline and seen people with so many crappie that they're spilling out of ice chests and onto the ground. “It's going to hurt our fishery in the end.”

The supervisors voiced support for the reduced bag limit, although Supervisor Jim Steele cautioned against making it a matter of fish size, not numbers. Knight agreed, saying the committee supported a total limit based on number.

Brown said that as a child growing up in Lake County, it was fun to go out to the piers and catch lots of crappie. Then the bass were brought in and they started eating all the crappie. “It's good to see them all come back,” Brown said of the crappie.

Knight said it was the opinion of Lt. Loren Freeman, a Lake County warden for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, that if the limit is dropped to 10, fewer people will drive up from the Bay Area to catch crappie on Clear Lake.

Supervisor Jim Comstock asked how rapidly the reduced bag limit could be implemented. Knight estimated by the first of the year. Comstock said that the wheels grind slowly, and Brown reminded them that the request previously had been made in 2005.

Steele suggested that the board could send someone to the next state Fish and Game Commission meeting in an effort to speed up the process.

The board approved the letter 4-0, with Supervisor Jeff Smith absent from the meeting.

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