Where Did the Vast Majority of Minnesota’s Large Panfish Go?

Written by “Brock Anderson
Area Fishing Guide Hang Loose Outdoors”

Remember when your father took you ice fishing as a kid, drilled a hole for you and a hole for him, and you sat on a 5 gallon bucket and waited for your bobber to go down?  Sometimes it never went down so you packed up and went back home.  Other times, you couldn't keep a minnow on your hook as you endlessly pulled slab panfish hand over hand up the hole.  Remember those times of pick poles with no reels, hand augers, and one, two, three, arm lengths bottom?   I can remember those times as they were yesterday. 

I can also remember the first time I was introduced to a fish-finder ice flasher.  I was on Upper Red Lake during its crappie glory days when one of my best buddies showed me one in action.  Not even a decade ago, someone who owned an ice flasher, developed into your best friend or fishing partner.  Today, who goes ice fishing without their flasher?  Who drops their fishing line before their flasher is positioned and turned on?  There are some of us who don’t even drop a line unless our flasher indicates fish especially when the target species are panfish.      

Speaking of panfish, do you remember when Upper Red Lake was kicking out slab crappies by the thousands every weekend?  The majority of the Minnesota fishing population could be found on Red Lake during the weekend.  I know I was one of these people.  Wow, what a memory.    

If you remember this then you also remember the gradual crash of the crappie population on Red.  One year they are slamming and the next year they are few and far between.  Well, that’s what happened when thousands upon thousands of fish were caught and kept out of one lake in one weekend for years and years.  Was it more exciting to catch them or eat them?  My most memorable ice fishing memories date back to the lakes’ crappie glory days.  My personal opinion was the crappies on Red Lake tasted like mud.  I would have rather ate 10 inch crappies out of a small bog stained lake.  But I, like everyone else, kept those Red Lake crappies regardless of taste or without consideration of the fisheries’ future.

When the Red Lake crappie population crashed, many panfish fishermen gathered their latest technologically advanced ice fishing equipment, knowledge, memories and greed, and applied them to other Minnesota panfish lakes.  People wanted to experience that same excitement that Red Lake once offered, if only everyone could have experienced that.  One thing some of these fishermen forgot to consider was the future and sustainability of smaller lake fisheries and their ability to reproduce year after year; especially after heavy fishing pressure.  They also didn’t realize that only certain bodies of water were able to produce large panfish similar to those of Red Lake.

As you all know, Minnesota is the land of ten thousand lakes.  What you may not know is only a very small percentage of these lakes are capable of producing a consistent amount of large panfish.  Some lakes just don’t have the sufficient habitat and satisfactory conditions to grow panfish to their full potential.  It’s the same scenario as with other fish species and also with some game animals like the familiar Whitetail deer.  Certain areas offer better environmental habitats adequately supplying deer with sufficient food, cover, and nutrients all year around, and only these near-perfect ecosystems and habitats can offer a Whitetail Buck maximum and sustainable antler growth year after year.  Many other factors influence a habitat’s capability to produce at its maximum potential: its carrying capacity, predators, management, hunting/fishing pressure, state rules and regulations like limits and licenses, just to name a few.

We all like to harvest large-racked whitetails from year to year, right?  Well, I like to catch slab crappies and bluegills especially during the winter months.  In order for this to occur, we need to recognize the importance of population management.  If we want large panfish or mature whitetails we have to release those bigger crappies and bluegills and pass up those 3 year old bucks.  This is a difficult task for most, but it will yield bigger bucks and larger panfish for the future.

Before I proceed, I need to define my criteria of a big crappie, bluegill, or in general a large panfish.  A big crappie in my mind and many others’ is 12-13 inches and greater and a big bluegill is right over that 8.5 inch mark.  Crappies, bluegills, sunfish, etc. are all categorized as panfish.

How many lakes can you bang off the top of your head that you can currently fish in the winter, not the spring, and catch primarily 12 to 13 inch crappies or 8.5 to 10 inch bluegills or better?  I’m talking 5 out of 10 fish caught meet my criteria of a large panfish.  Time is up.  Now, take the time to think of lakes 5 or 10 years ago that you could go to and catch these fish?  I bet you have a longer list.  Finally, take the time to think of lakes which yield 8 to 11 inch crappies or 6 to 8 inch bluegills at some point during the winter.  I bet your head is spinning and your list is even longer than when pondering the previously asked questions.

These questions have been haunting my fishing partners and me for the past few years, now.  Where are we going to go ice fishing today to target slab crappies or bluegills?  Where can we go to catch, take pictures, and release those thrilling slabs; maybe keeping a few good ones along with a couple smaller ones for an adequate meal?  Five to ten years ago, we didn’t bat an eye at this question.  We pulled out the map, picked a new lake or two, and went exploring typically obtaining success on one of the new selections.  If we didn’t feel like an adventure that given day, we simply chose our destination from our already acquainted long list of quality lakes.  Most of these lakes were essentially near the Grand Rapids, Minnesota area as this was where most of us grew up and gained our fishing knowledge.  I took the time to answer the same questions asked of you and they are as follows:

• How many lakes can you bang off the top of your head that you can currently fish in the winter and catch primarily 12 to 13 inch crappies or 8.5 to 10 inch bluegills or better, where 5 of 10 fish caught meet this criteria.

Pokegama Lake, Big Sandy, Bowstring, Graves, one or 2 unnamed lakes

• Now, take the time to think of lakes 5 or 10 years ago that you could go to and catch these fish?

Big Sandy, Bowstring, Hill, Smith, Big Splithand, Sugar, Bass, Spider, Dixon, Portage, Sucker, Larson, Upper Red, Little Ball Club, Jessie, Turtle, Balsam (that’ s just a few)

• Think of lakes you can go to and catch 8 to 11 inch crappies or 6 to 8 inch bluegills at some point during the winter.

Most all small lakes around the Grand Rapids area meet this criterion during some point in the winter months…

My point is this; the number of lakes you can currently catch large panfish in Minnesota is dwindling very rapidly.  Many factors contribute to this decline, but in my opinion new technology and I point my finger towards the fish-finder flasher, as the second leading contributor which has really put a strain on the population of these easily targeted fish.

Panfish are easily targeted in the winter because they can routinely be found suspended and feeding in the deepest parts of a lake.  There is no better recipe for success than a flasher and a fully fueled gas auger (3^rd leading contributor to the panfish decline).  With a little determination, maybe the most recent fisherman hearsay along with a gps and a lake contour chip (4^th), and the above ingredients; my bet is on the fisherman finding success.  Once the fish are located, most panfish can’t resist a plumb wax worm or a squirming minnow on most days.  With all the new technology and products like jigs (5^th), ice poles (6^th), comfortable fish houses (7^th),  and warm clothes (8^th), most fishermen will hold their patience until they have knocked out a limit of panfish before they decide it’s time to head home.

The worst part about knocking out a limit or finding a new lake with good potential panfish is, a large percentage of fishermen will return the next day or a few days later, and they usually won’t be returning alone.  It is all too common to bring 2 or more friends for additional limits.  I view this as ‘greed’, which I believe is the number one contributing factor to the panfish decline of Minnesota’s fisheries.

There is nothing worse than fisherman ‘greed’ when pursuing this easily targeted winter species or any species to say.   If one deems it necessary to harvest and eat an excessive amount of fish, they should go to one of the thousands of smaller lakes that aren’t as capable of producing large panfish and target those smaller crappies and bluegills.  In my opinion, smaller panfish make a better tasting meal anyways. 

For example, Big Splithand in Itasca County is one of those lakes that produce large panfish.  Up until five years ago, it always had a healthy population of 12 to 15 inch crappies along with a number of 9 to 10 inch bluegills.  The last few years however, the lake’s panfish population is on the rebound back from being nearly fished out.  Today, there is a fair population of 8 to 11 inch crappies, but their future looks sparse as people continue to pound away without consideration of the lake’s past, its potential, and more importantly its future.

Most fishermen don’t realize they could move their wheel houses down the road a half mile to Little Splithand Lake, which isn’t as capable of producing large panfish, and they could catch all the 8 to 11 inch crappies they could ever want or need.  This would allow its neighboring fishery the opportunity to produce at its full potential. 

There are many correlating factors that play a significant role in a lake being able to reach its maximum potential, but if most fisherman understand just a few important concepts about how a population in a lake functions then maybe they could help out and educate others.  As previously mentioned, only a small percentage of Minnesota lakes have an environment capable of growing large or trophy sized panfish.  These lakes can only successfully reproduce and maintain a peak amount of crappies every year while operating at a healthy equilibrium.

For example, let’s examine a healthy lake’s crappies in pounds.  Lake X at a healthy, balanced, and sustainable capacity can support 1000 pounds of crappies for example.  Now, let’s again imagine these 1000 lbs of crappies broken into inch categories or relative year classes: 250 lbs of 2 to 5 inch, 250 lbs of 6 to9 inch, 250 lbs of 10 to 13 inch, 250 lbs of 13+ inch.  If fisherman catch and keep 250 lbs of 13+ inch crappies in one year out of Lake X, the whole ecosystem is adversely effected especially the individual population.  The following year Lake X’s crappie population might look something like this: 350 lbs of 2-5inch, 350 lbs of 6-9inch, 300 lbs of 10-13.  I bet you are all thinking; why didn’t the 10-13 inch crappies grow and develop into the next class?  Well, you must understand this class has fewer numbers of fish and a slower growth rate compared to the other size classes. 

Growth rates in general are much slower in larger fish than in smaller fish.  This is true for many species of fish, reptiles, and mammals.  Just think about it.  Did you grow taller from age 1 to 15 or 15 to 30?  Your growth rate also decreases with age.

The panfish’ growth rate decreases with age so if a 13+ inch population is wiped out of a small lake in one or two years, it’s going to take multiple years to restore that size class.  When one or two size classes are destroyed, the whole ecosystem is catastrophically affected and several years are added to the restoration process.  One year of damage might mean 20 plus years of restoration.  Again, lots of other factors influence a lake’s ability to rebound from fishing pressure or environmental alteration and produce large panfish, but many simple management strategies along with fishermen knowledge can help these processes out.

If fishermen care about the future of large panfish, one very important rule can be passed on from one fisherman to the other: release the large and trophy sized panfish in a lake.  If a meal is demanded, keep the smaller sized fish and never ever let your greed take over (this can also be applied to other fish species).  A common misconception among fishermen is the need to keep the large panfish in order for the smaller ones to grow bigger.  This is not true by any means.  If you want larger panfish, release the bigger ones, and let the fishery maintain and produce at its continuum.

The last 10 years has proven that fishermen have not been managing and protecting the majority of Minnesota’s large panfish to the point desired for future sustainability.  Additional management plans and guidelines need to be introduced to protect and restore these important species to the lakes they once thrived in.  As the number of lakes with large panfish continues to drastically decrease, many fishermen are starting to worry.

Do individual lakes need special panfish slot limits or regulations in order for them to produce at their maximum potential and sustainability?  Why does the walleye have slot limits and not the crappie?  Do new rules and regulations need to be quickly introduced so the preservation of Minnesota’s large and renowned panfish is secured for our kids and for future generations?  Exactly what will it take for the Minnesota DNR to protect this important fishery to the point where large slab panfish are common in the lakes they once were popular in? Letters, petitions, even protests?  I think so.