When crappie are stunted, like they apparantly are in Jerry Combs Lake, very few of them will get large. The vast majority will be under 9 inches. Typically, less than 1% will be larger. Harvest is necessary to reduce the numbers and allow the remaining crappie to grow. Think of it like a wood lot. If you have trees every foot they will not grow very large. But thin the trees out to a spacing of 10 feet and they will grow much larger. If you are fishing a lake with no length limit on crappie and a daily limit of 30, the manager is trying to thin the population out. Please take your limit when you can. It takes a little practice to filet an 8-inch crappie, but it's not too hard.