The lil lake and them lil crappie

[Ketchn]

We hit a spot or 2 from time to time that are over run with crappie . this of course stunts them , but when one wants to just go get alot of bites and do a lil meat haul its a rather fun adventure . I find in many cases private waters are terribly managed and hear the same thing time and time again . we only managed a 1 or 2 big enough to keep and the rest were lil ones . it reminds me of back when and hunting and the dont kill the does thing . anyway we hit this spot late in the day that is flat loaded up with them . my bud on the trip hasnt been there before and was asking as we went up and down the lil mountains and down lil goat trail roads draggin my boat how on earth do you guys find all these out of the way spots .....
i told him being friendly to others and sharing tackle and tips will sure enough get you into places where the crowds are not . it was a lay down calm day and we hit it for about 2 hours before dark . the fish in this particular pond are VERY tricky lil devils to ketch. they bite so light that many times you realize its a fish right after it spits the jig out . they like it drug across the bottom as well which in turn dispells a myth i see all the time about crappie ONLY feeding up . Matter of fact on this subject i know 2 professionals that won a pretty big crappie tourney recently on a BIG lake draggin custom plastic baits across the bottom .
keep in mind this ....if the water the crappie are in is shallow they may very well be feeding off the bottom .
the fish were holding in this lil lake at depths around 6 to 7 feet in 6 to 7 feet of water in the shade ....nothing out in the deeper waters for some reason and the brush piles in 16 foot of water were void of fish .
and THATS the tip of the day

[Ketchn]

side note time .....managed a few fish at lunch break in muddy water on the bottom under a public fishin dock yesterday as well at a BIG lake ....muddy and lots of current midday
bouncing the jig on the bottom once again in the shade .....

[warmouth]

We have a couple lakes where they are overpopulated, and a 10" fish is a monster, lol. Fun to take the kids and let them catch a pile of the dinks. Heck its fun for me too.

[Ketchn]

we go just to play in those spots as well . lots of fun for a couple of hours for sure .....a big fish will come up once every other trip or sometimes even 2 or 3 in a trip ...but those fish are quite rare in the there for sure . lots a big eyed big headed crappie is the main stay ...

[IDFliers]

Wow, nice harvest of fillets. Excuse my ignorance, but what do you use to fillet them? I probably get 40 or so each outing of the under 9" Crappie, but the ones I've taken home I barely get a strip of meat off of. Hate to waste them, so I've just been releasing them. Maybe I need to go down and get one of the electric Rapala knives they sell here. We have an enormous population of smaller Crappie on a little 146 acre lake here, and if I can figure out how to get the meat off them, I'll do my part in reducing the number of smaller ones.

[Slowboat]

We have a 125 acre lake that is over run with dinks.(event the KDWP says to keep them)You might be able to find my other post. Someone mentioned scaling and gutting like a blugill or perch but I haven't been back since. I also tried to clean some 9" crappie and got small strips like you. But yes you will be helping the lake keeping and trying to harvest what you can so don't feel bad however you do it. Scaling and gutting 100 fish seems very time consuming for me. And I did use a electric knife on mine to filet and it worked great. You still get as much as you would on a regular knife. Just MO.

[Eagle 1]

I would fill the freezer with them . We only eat them a bite at a time . Scale then fillet .

[Ketchn]

i use a lil bitty Rapala thats old as dirt ....i think it has a 6 inch blade maybe or 7 ? keep it real sharp and follow the bones closely .....
i typically burn thru em pretty quickly ...i think i cleaned em in about an hour ....27 crappie and 3 gills ....
and a dozen er so went headless and scaled to my boss ....he is an old school kinda panfish eater
i suppose i could go a bit faster if i dint value my fingers though and wasnt a half blind older fella ...LOL
....one thing for certain i prefer the smaller fillets myself for cooking and eating .....
they are fast to cook and cook evenly ...
and they make about some SUPER fine crappie tacos for sure !