Louisiana’s sport fishermen are no strangers to newly imposed regulations on size or creel limits and most are aware of the advantages of using forward facing sonar.

We are coping with new regulations imposed on speckled trout Nov. 20, 2023, and, just recently, new rules on daily creel limits and minimum-maximum size limits for redfish that went into effect June 20. Reaction has been mixed among recreational anglers from vehemently against to mildly opposed to a wholehearted thumbs up to mildly supportive.

Our neighbors to the east just got word last week the daily creel limit on crappie at four popular crappie lakes in north Mississippi has been reduced from 15 to 10 over 12 inches long per angler per day and no more than 25 total crappie in the boat per day at Enid, Grenada, Sardis and Arkabutla lakes. Those happen to be the state’s four most productive crappie lakes in Mississippi.

The reason? LiveScope, according to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. The technology has come under the microscope because of its effectiveness.

As good and well-known as those lakes are, anglers and biologists agree their productivity would change for the worse if the current 15 crappie per angler per day limit would have stayed on the books in this era of FFS.

“We did a three-year study on Sardis, Enid and Grenada looking at if they were catching fish with a single pole or trolling. We also looked at if they were using live sonar,” regional fisheries biologist Keith Meals said in a story published June 21 in the Mississippi Clarion Ledger. “In that three-year period, we saw our fishermen using live sonar increase from 20 percent to 70 percent and it’s probably higher than that now.”

Meals said the results revealed anglers using LiveScope were catching two to three times more fish than those that did not and have created a situation that is no longer sustainable for the fisheries. The story written by Brian Broom points out FFS is different than traditional fish finders because it offers live, detailed underwater images that show the size of a fish plus the angler’s artificial lure, which can be cast right in front of a fish’s nose.

Kyle LeBlanc of New Iberia knows from first-hand experience how good the crappie fishing is at Grenada Lake and how efficient FFS is at the lake in northwest Mississippi. LeBlanc and a fishing buddy went there because of its reputation in early March and weren’t disappointed on their first-ever trip to Grenada Lake. Each caught their personal best among many 2-pound class crappie (we know them as sac-a-lait) – LeBlanc’s at 2.62 pounds and Kayde Nicholas of Forked Island with a 2.24-pounder.

LeBlanc is improving his knowledge and use of LiveScope, which he put in his boat in June 2022. It showed him the way at Grenada Lake.

And that’s the main issue, according to Jennifer Ratciff of Canton, Mississippi, who told the Clarion Ledger, “Used to be you went out there and hoped for the best. Now, you feel like you can catch a few any day.”

Ratcliff’s husband, John Ratcliff, agreed and said, “It’s a game-changer. There’s no doubt about it. If you know how to use it and they’re biting, you can kill them.”

That’s why the commission decided to change regulations on the state’s four northern lakes.

“We’re trying to maintain a quality fishery in terms of size,” Meals said in the story.

A veteran fishing guide was all for the change.

John Harrison, who owns J.J. Guide Service and guides on Enid, Grenada and Sardis lakes, said, “Something had to be done. The boat ramps are full all year long. They (the fish) just don’t get a break and LiveScope comes into play now. It just puts a lot of pressure on them right now and has been for the last few years. Something had to be done about the limits.”

Mississippi’s new crappie regulations go into effect July 24.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.