CRYSTAL SPRINGS, Miss. — When many bass anglers think of maintaining a quality fishery, having a fish fry with largemouth fillets is not the first thing that comes to mind. At Calling Panther Lake, things are a little different.
Opening in 2006, the lake was highly anticipated to be a first class fishery with its standing timber, deep water and varied terrain.
A seven-fish limit was placed on bass with a slot between 16- and 22-inch fish that had to be released and allowed one fish over 22 inches. Within a couple of years of opening, the 500-acre lake was producing bass over 9 pounds.
With schools of smaller fish building up, the limit was changed to 30 bass per day and allowed one fish over 20 inches to be kept.
Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks' biologist Jerry Brown said, "What we wanted to do was create a liberal limit on bass to encourage people to harvest the bass here."
Brown said the limit allows fishermen to keep fish to eat, but also allows them to keep a trophy bass if they catch one.
And while some fishermen are keeping smaller fish, Brown said, "A lot of your bass anglers are in the catch-and-release mode."
Chris Williams of Liberty made a recent trip to the lake and was working structure with a red shad plastic worm. Pulling a few small bass out of his live well, he agrees with the concept.
"A lot of times I do catch-and-release," Williams said, "but you do increase the size of the fish by removing the smaller ones."
Williams went on to say that by removing the smaller bass that compete for food with the larger fish, the fishery would certainly benefit.
In 2011, James Allen of Crystal Springs learned a firsthand lesson of how well the lake management is working. Fishing 6- to 7-inch redfin shiners, Allen said he had caught several bass in the 6- to 11-pound range.
While maintaining that the lake is managed to produce a quality fishery and not necessarily to produce a new state record, Brown agrees with Allen and said he is optimistic Calling Panther Lake will produce the next state record largemouth bass.
"It was one of those days when you couldn't do nothing wrong," he said.
That's when another bass slammed his bait and his already spectacular luck went over the top.
"We just had a fight in the stumps," said Allen. "He acted like he had a mission to go on, but he didn't get wrapped up."
When the battle was over, "I panicked. It was the biggest fish I've ever seen," said Allen.
At 15.4 pounds, it is still the biggest fish anyone has seen in Calling Panther.
Allen is surprised the record still stands.
"The next state record, I'm very confident, is in that lake and I've probably hooked him," Allen said. "You're just lucky to get one in the boat with as many trees and stumps that are in there."
Fishermen at Calling Panther get to have their cake and eat it too.
Allen enjoys catching trophy fish in the lake and says he caught 14 bass over 10 pounds last year alone. As much as he likes catching the big sows, he likes eating bass, too. Allen describes Calling Panther largemouth under 3 pounds as, "the best eating fish you ever ate in your life."
While maintaining that the lake is managed to produce a quality fishery and not necessarily to produce a new state record, Brown agrees with Allen and said he is optimistic Calling Panther Lake will produce the next state record largemouth bass.
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Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, http://www.clarionledger.com