"That kind of got us," Waters admitted. "We saw this trend over time. Every year, we were seeing one less year-class. One year, most of the fish would be in four different year-classes, then it was three, then two. Two years ago, 80 percent of the crappie we collected in our trap-net surveys were 2-year-old fish."

The commission responded by putting a 20-fish daily creel limit and a 10-inch size minimum on the fishery.

"The anglers were catching fish like they had always been, and they don't see any problems with the fishery because the growth rates are so good. Jordan has always been good -- maybe the best we've got, statewide -- and it continues to be good for fishermen. But the one thing they couldn't see was the age of the fish," Waters said.

"When you talk to anglers, they say there are fish everywhere, that they catch plenty of 8-, 9- and 10-inch fish -- plenty of fish. However, all the fish they were seeing, instead of being 5, 6 and 7 years old, were all 2 years old. We knew if we had a couple of bad spawns back to back, maybe a drought year and a couple of low year-classes, the lake could be in bad shape."

Being taken out of the water and dropped in the hot cooking oil at 2 years of age was allowing most female fish only one real chance at spawning. The 10-inch size minimum, Waters said, is an attempt to give crappie at least two spawns before they swallow the wrong minnow or jig and wind up in a cast-iron skillet.

"They grow so fast at Jordan, that if you put an 8-inch minimum on them, they get one good spawn and then they're harvested," he said. "We were trying to save some fish. Production is high, and they grow so fast."

Waters said that when biologists sampled crappie in the fall of 2004, after regulations went into effect that summer, they could already see a difference. "We've been tracking it, and we were encouraged last year because we saw a handful of different year-classes. Whether that was related to the regulations or not, only time will tell."

Until anything changes, however, Waters will continue to believe that Jordan is the best crappie fishery in North Carolina.

Harris and Blewett Falls are interesting fisheries in that they don't nearly get the fishing pressure that their neighboring lakes get -- and yet, they may be among the best crappie fisheries in North Carolina.

"Some local fishermen fish Harris, but it doesn't get the pressure that Jordan gets," Waters said. "In fact, there's some concern among the local fishermen that the 10-inch size limit on Jordan is going to push more people to Harris."

Waters said that recent sampling at Harris indicates an excellent population of crappie. "The numbers were as good as any of the other reservoirs we've sampled," he said. "The growth rates appear to be good, and the fish seem to be in very good shape. The fishing should be pretty good; the one puzzle piece that we don't know about is the fishing pressure."