Couple from this morning...had another small mess.
We kept just a few today. These are 10.5-11in class redear, not the hawgs. Threw back 6 nice pregnant redears and kept one female that was gut hooked. The big female fish were spewing their eggs in my boat on several occasions, I quickly threw them back in. Weather was hot by 10:30.
Congrats on finding them
Wheww nice size fish, I hate to admit it and am probably gonna risk my Cdc status, but I like the sweet taste of redear and bluegill even more then Crappie
Man if I go in warm weather and want to stay very long got to have an umbrella...won't sit in that direct sun like I use to. Good going...hey those are goods ones ...12" or better are fewer and farther between than use to be.
I'll tell you how to "sweeten up" the taste of Crappie .... leave the skin on, even if you fillet them. Scrape the scales off, of course, then cut your fillets out and fry them up. The skin will add a sweet, nutty taste to your fish (as long as you don't drown them in spicy cover-ups ). And, of course, you could always clean them the "old school" way and cook them ... just be wary of the bones. I do believe you will notice the sweet/nutty taste "more" if you clean & cook them "fresh from the water" (not freezing them).
Thanks Pappy, I will try that. It seems the only time I eat fresh crappie is when we are on a fishing trip and did notice when we fished florida this winter the smaller fish were much better than the fish in the 2lb range. 75% of the time we just bread them and fry, but my wife is starting to try other recipes and also likes baking the fillets. Soon I will have to replace my deep freeze for the past couple months we stuff at least 2 baggies of fillets in the freezer, I actually went bass fishing sunday just so i would have the evening to relax (not a good excuse) I know.