panfish enhancement lakes

i fish cross ck. lake in washington co. alot and have no trouble catching a limit of bluegill and crappie- the problem for me is catching a  gill over 9 in. and a crappie over 10in. it seems to me maybe the regs. need to be changed.

This biologist report from 2007 resulted in a catch of 1672 black crappie and 1567 bluegill. Thirty-five percent of the black crappie and 67 percent of the bluegill were legal. Another 19 white crappie were captured ranging in size from 3 to 10 inches.
 
From the report:
 
"48% of the total catch was comprised of black crappie, and 45% of the total catch was comprised of bluegill."
 
&
 
"The best example of how modifications made to existing angling regulations can improve the abundance of larger fish for a given population is depicted by Cross Creek Lake’s bluegill data.  The abundance of legal (greater than 7 inches) bluegill collected from trap nets was variable when Conservation Regulations (no minimum length; 10 per day creel limit) were in place from 1986 through 1997.  However, with the authorization of Panfish Enhancement Regulations (7 inch minimum length; 20 per day creel limit) in 2000, the abundance of legal-sized bluegill has shown a dramatic increase for each of the past three survey years (2003, 2005, and 2007)."

No you don't need a boat. When I was able I use to fish the shore. There are several spots that pay off with some nice crappie but I can't go into details cause someone else may consider them to be their honey holes, but I will say they're in easy waalking distance of the guard shack. Do you ever stop at the bait shop and talk with Mike?

It may not have been your tackle although I would never recommend using cheap tackle. Could have been a Musky or a big catfish. I also have  a story similar although mine didn't break. I was fishing the mouth of a creek when I was about 13 years old. I didn't know much about fishing (still don't) and what tackle to use. I was tossing some topwater lure and just reeling it back when there was a huge swirl, my rod almost came out of my hand and when I reeled in the lure which was a cheap wooden lure, there were teeth scrapes in it. Never seen what it was. It was a creek at the mouth of the Yough river. Assuming it was a musky since what I seen of it, it was a lot bigger than a walleye. The Yough is known to have some decent musky in it.

As of last night there was a very thin ice but should be gone by today. There was some guys fishing off the handi cap dock before it turned cold.As for cheap gear I would not touch it but but I saw my youhgest girl catch a nice size carp on a SNOOPY pole. Its all in the drag setting

You mean the ones by the big hickory nut tree and little spring? If so we probably were fishing side by side. It got a little too hard to get there when the earth dam caved and if some boaters saw you catching fish they'd anchor right in front of you..I've tried there from my boat when no one was around and nothing, I just figured those stumps are decayed to far