Thoughts on size limits

[jfears]

On a lake with no size limit I myself do not keep anything under 10 unless they are gut hooked and probably not going to live. But do they put no size limits on a lake that needs to be thinned out? The lake I have been fishing on has no size limit and is packed full of small fish. So do you keep the small ones or throw them back?

[jigflinger]

There are good arguments for both options. I make my decision on the history of the body of water. Then again some waters have a habit of producing large fish and others will only produce smaller fish. Whether this is because of environmental issues or a matter of too many fish is what determines it. If a fishery has a history of producing small fish, then I will keep small fish.

[jfears]

This lake is about 310 acres and it does have some nice fish in it, today I had one that was 15 inches but its about 50 dinks to one decent fish

[bfish]

In pond that small, I would keep the small ones and let the big ones go. Just the opposite on large waters.

[chucktx]

x1!!

[zummy]

Grandpa always said never throw a crappie back in a pond. The overpopulate so quick that it stunts them. Seeing it play out in many of the ponds we fish. Matter of fact the landowner better not see you toss a fish back. In the last few years we have slowly watched the size of the fish decrease.

[NIMROD]

It is your call , here my home lake it takes 100 to cull out 20 over 10'' lots of days. If your fish hungry take em home. I don't need em and perfer to keep only 10'' and bigger Crappie.

[Bowman]

I keep 10" or bigger, not much there below 10"
I like 12" for the amount of meat I get