Big crappie eaters?

[Illinoisgiller]

In a conversation with a friend the other day, he was telling me about catching some 3#+ crappie down in Mississippi. He said that it was the experiance of a lifetime! The one thing he did bring up is that they were not good eating. He said he gutted them and brought them home frozen with the skin on to show off to a few friends. I would imagine that this would be as poor a way to keep them even for a short time.
I guess my question is do you find these lunkers to be poorer eating overall than the mid sized ones?
With my limited experiance , I haven' had the opportunity to try the lunkers. :rolleyes: Wish all tight lines, Mike

[skiptomylu]

In a conversation with a friend the other day, he was telling me about catching some 3#+ crappie down in Mississippi. He said that it was the experiance of a lifetime! The one thing he did bring up is that they were not good eating. He said he gutted them and brought them home frozen with the skin on to show off to a few friends. I would imagine that this would be as poor a way to keep them even for a short time.
I guess my question is do you find these lunkers to be poorer eating overall than the mid sized ones?
With my limited experiance , I haven' had the opportunity to try the lunkers. :rolleyes: Wish all tight lines, Mike

Don't have any over 3, but up to 2.9 pounds and they all were good eating. However I always put some mustard and Tabasco on my fish for a bit before I cornmeal and fry. It hardly adds any of the flavor of the mustard nor the hot of the Tabasco, but take any fishy taste away IMHO. I never leave any skin on fish except small Bream, too small to fillet.

Get crappie over 2# quite often.

[ShilohRed]

It was the way he handled the fish. Not the fish.
Pete

[shadow]

I have to agree with Shilo. I have never heard of any crappie (no matter what size) to be bad tasting.

[crappie52]

that myth was started by my ex-father in law who could only catch dinks, he said the smaller ones taste better.

[Illinoisgiller]

Thank you for the responses. That was my opinion also, but one never knows without other opinions. I like to process my fish ASAP. Thanks again, Mike

[GRIZZ]

They say the same thing about walleyes, but every 10lb walleye I've eaten was as good as the 2 lbers.

[reelcrappie]

I wouldn't know what a three pound crappie tastes like or even what they look like unfortunately. I suspect that it would have tasted better if handled better. I fillet all my fish and take the skin off as soon as I can. I try to keep the cooler drained and plenty of Ice on them til I can clean them. If I ever catch a three pounder he will go on the wall.

[drifter106]

IMHO, the ultimate taste is going to be found with a smaller fish. Crappie, channel cat or flathead. Now for some people they would find that difference to be insignficant. Personally, I would throw back 1 5 lb catfish and keep 2 that would weigh 1 to 1/1/2 (if I was cleaning them to eat myself). But thats just me.