Holland River Crappie Run?

What happened to the crappie run on the holland river. I used to go out to the river on days like this and easily catch 1 dozen and now there is nothing but tiny perch and the odd bullhead. Did they stop running?

Very highly pressured. They are in and out but from day to day it can be tough. Yes they do run but I find it’s good for a day or so at best.

yeah highly pressured! I see lots of people lining the bank everyday! not sure if they are catching though

Well I guess I missed the one day? I was there all weekend and nothing really catching a few small perch and 2 bullheads and thats it! No one catching much around me either. Just drove by and it's packed with people again!

They’ve been off and on for a month or so now.

Here’s one from late March

I honestly thing the run in the canals has been mostly destroyed.
Almost every state in the US has a size limit on Crappy. I believe this is so they reach spawning maturity before being potentially harvested.
Our Crappy get a a beat down with tiny crappy harvested all day long.
Maybe the MNR doesn’t manage them the same because they aren’t native to Simcoe?

Personally I don’t eat them from the Holland river , just catch and release , there are a lot of resident crappie in there and with all the run off from the farmland it’s just not appetizing for me , and I’m not sure which ones are resident and which ones are just there for the spring pre spawn feed.

I think the residents are lighter in color, look kinda washed out. Or mutated with 3 eyes due to farm runoffs

Not sure about consumption but the guide to eating Ontario sport fish says it’s ok. I personally don’t as farm run off directly where I am fishing would make me question things and I prefer safer.

That being said the run off goes directly into cooks bay and I eat fish from there. I would bet it makes zero difference from the bay to the canals but I have no specific data. Just going with my gut on this one.

Agree with Disco. Over harvest of egg laden females.

Nice slab, well done ..

Love the spring and panfish fishing..

Bobber down!