I think that you will generally find that an older fish with a 12 inch body will have a head that is disproportional to it's body size. Eliminate it.
Funny... we came to the same conclusion about my Uncle Cyrus.
Dave, so far all the crappie are between 10-12in. I can't tell how prolific they are at this point. According to angling efforts the bass are heavily outnumbering the crappie. I intend to keep the pressure up.
I also submerged a lifesize picture of Big Head Uncle Cyrus near known crappie hideouts. Several crappie, obviously with coronary conditions immediately gave up the ghost and floated to the surface.
Big Head Cyrus has also been known to cause frigidity in the female species. This should help reduce reproductive tendencies in further crappie generations.
Jeff, if you'll note my original post, I did inquire about Mr. C's mutated BG. I had hoped to introduce a few into the pond to eliminate my crappie problem. However, I just watched "Jaws" again on TV and have thought better of it.
Cecil, thanks for the compliments. That means a lot coming from you guys. I have had the shoreline seined. I contacted the state biologist for the Alabama Dept of Conservation and had him do a evaluation for me. The eval is free and he is paid by the State so he has no monetary interest.
He basically reinforced everything I was doing and have learned by reading articles and this forum. He did offer some interesting information though. Apparently, 2/3 of the public lakes in Alabama suffer from the same condition that my lake does. That is overpopulated and unharvested fish populations resulting in smaller and less healthy fish. Randall Scott's catch and release program has done more to hurt recreational fishing than 1000 P.E.T.A. protests.
As far as the shock boat is concerned, I abandoned my "generator on the jon boat" idea at Bruce's request.
My alternate plan has not had much success either. Seems I don't have enough extension cords and I'm running out of small appliances.
And Cecil, the only macrophytes I've seen are on pay per view. I got the carp to munch on the aquatic plantlife.
