Crappie on Ice

[crappie_dan]

Is it better to put the fresh caught crappie directly on ice or in the live well where they eventually die as time goes by? I have been hearing alot of people put their slabs on ice as soon as they are caught. I always just put them in the livewell for the day until I get home then clean them. Just wondering what is best if you are gonna clean them either way.

[BigD]

I put mine on ice. What I use is a large Sams bag (freezer bag $12.00). I freeze 32 ounce bottles and depending how warm it is will determine how many I use.
When the fish come home they are still flopping when undergoing the knife.

The bag makes it easy to carry and switch out. My wife fillets all my fish. All we do is switch a clean bag with fresh ice out for a bag full of fish.

You can get as many as 60 large crappie in the bag with one 32 ounce ice bottle on the bottom and one 32 ounce bottle on top.

D

[rnvinc]

I put mine on ice. What I use is a large Sams bag (freezer bag $12.00). I freeze 32 ounce bottles and depending how warm it is will determine how many I use.
When the fish come home they are still flopping when undergoing the knife.

The bag makes it easy to carry and switch out. My wife fillets all my fish. All we do is switch a clean bag with fresh ice out for a bag full of fish.

You can get as many as 60 large crappie in the bag with one 32 ounce ice bottle on the bottom and one 32 ounce bottle on top.

D

That's some wife you have there bigd.....

[PIGINTHEPIGPEN]

I must have a good livewell. My fish have stayed in a livewell for 12hr till I get home to clean them. Have had my boat for 9 years now and, Never had a single crappie die in the livewell. Then again once the air temp hits 80 I'm done till the fall comes.

[gabowman]

I use a large cooler since I dont have a livewell. Until the weather gets hot I just use the lake water. Once fish cannot survive in the cooler of lake water I switch to only ice in the cooler.

[Bob # 1]

Iced cooler

[GCD]

I must have a good livewell. My fish have stayed in a livewell for 12hr till I get home to clean them. Have had my boat for 9 years now and, Never had a single crappie die in the livewell. Then again once the air temp hits 80 I'm done till the fall comes.

My fish don't die in the livewell either.

I put my fish in the livewell for a few of reasons:

1. I don't keep everything I catch, when I'm finished fishing for the day I pick out the ones I want to keep and release the rest.

2. I like to fish deep water for Crappie, and pulling a Crappie up out of 20' of water will give it decompression issues for 30-60 minutes. They will swim on their side in the livewell until they recover, some people think they are dead in some of the livewell pics I take... but they're not. Just try to pick a side swimmer up and he'll slip out of your hands, splash water in your face and race around the livewell a couple of times!

3. I like to take pictures of my fish and hold them in the livewell for that reason too.

When I'm finished fishing for the day, the ones I decide to keep go directly into the cooler and on ice. They keep and clean much better that way!

Mmmmmmmmmm! nice fresh Crappie!!!:p

[oldwun]

I know the crappie are easier to fillet if they have been kept on ice. I have good live well but we still put them on ice. I do not cull crappie. I keep the ones I want to keep and throw the others back as soon as they are off the hook.

[mrwillis]

Ice and a cooler...all the way for us. We have a large styrofoam, thick cooler, and we cut a small rectangular hole in the lid. We put a couple bags of ice in the bottom, and when we catch one, we just shove him through the hole. It's nice...and I like cleaning dead fish instead of ones that might still be flopping around a little.

[Locator79]

Cooler full of ice is the way to go!