Just returned from my first spring crappie trip this year. While cleaning a few fish I started wondering what size crappies are the most popular to keep. It looks to me like most people just keep what ever they catch. Im guilty of that myself the few times I decide to keep any fish.
Just wonder what some of you guys practice when fishing crappies.
The 6 I kept tonight where between 9.5 and 12″.
My minimum is about 7.5-8 inches depending on the fish, personally 9-12 inchs is perfect fish for me.
Seeing the poor numbers our winters have been producing lately, and having knowledge of some lakes having to lower harvest numbers because of the keep rate, I’ve begun C&R on crappies this year. 7.5″ don’t need but another year or two to be a much better quality fish. I don’t mean to offend anyone for keeping fish………. I’m just stating that I’m seeing some crappie number problems and quality issues too so I’m choosing to add them to my “sport fishing” practices.
My dad is less than impressed seeing the total panfish harvest on Squaw being lowered to 10 fish. There is a message in this guys and a little effort can make for better fishing without much waiting if we dive in and help it. My 2 cents……….
I’ve also started to C&R on my panfish, especially Crappies. You just seem to see way too many guys out on the ice with buckets full of 6-8 inchers, and then correspondingly low numbers and size, at least in our neck of the woods. Don’t know if any of you Iowa fishermen have been to Hawthorne down by Barnes City lately, but that particular lake is a shining example. In any event, it doesn’t take that many 8-12 inchers to feed even a large family. Makes one wonder how many fish these guys throw away with freezerburn after a couple of years. No panfish limits in Iowa yet, but we’ve got our fingers crossed.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
