size limits?

[axtell31]

Do any of you guys have a size limit on the size fish you catch? Here in Michigan you can keep whatever and I noticed a guy keeping 5-6 inch crappies. I would never do that them are way to small I usually shoot for at least 9 inches considering the lake I usually fish doesnt have many big ones. Just curious if mine our to small or what you guys would do?
Justin

[Barnacle Bill]

Do any of you guys have a size limit on the size fish you catch? Here in Michigan you can keep whatever and I noticed a guy keeping 5-6 inch crappies. I would never do that them are way to small I usually shoot for at least 9 inches considering the lake I usually fish doesnt have many big ones. Just curious if mine our to small or what you guys would do?
Justin

We normally don't keep anything less thn 10". A few exceptions would be one that is gut caught and will die anyway or one over 9.5" and is extra thick.

[crappieken]

axtel 31 - It depends on the body of water I am fishing. I have one small lake that has black crappie in it but they don't seem to get any bigger than 10 inches. A lot of the 9 inch black crappie I catch are thick fish and a 9 incher makes good eating. Another lake I fish the crappie are quite thin and it takes a 10 incher to make it worthwhile to clean.

[Eager Beaver]

It really depends on the body of water you are fishing! If there is larger crappie in the lake than you can keep the larger fish, but if there is an over abundance of smaller fish than you need to take some of the smaller (9 inch) fish out. My local lakes take the size limits off Crappie and Bluegill for the month of April and ask people to keep the smaller fish to help the fishery. Normally the size limits are 8 inch Bluegill and 10 inch Crappie. I personally like to keep 6-7 inch Bluegills. I fillet the meat along the backbone and when it is fried, it will curl up like popcorn shrimp. Good eating.

[410MAN]

Here in Texas in public lakes 10 in minimum 25 limit,except on some lakes in Dec & Jan & maybe Feb keep all ya catch no size 25 limit, cause fish come out of deep water when pulled up quickley sometime they die.

[dwm376s]

I agree with most of whats said. I fished a lake in NW MIssouri this year that we were catching 6-7" crappie on every cast. Can you say stockpiled???

We caught over 250 fish in a half hour one evening and not a single one was over 9". We started keeping our limits and did so over the next few days.





Ended up taking over 500 fish out between me and a couple fishing buddies over the next few days. The thing is we didn't even make a dent. We just got tired of cleaning fish. They never slowed down, each and every cast with any type of jig or small plastic would yield a fish.



The thing we noticed was that many other people were catching them every cast and throwing them back. Talked to a few locals and they were complaining that the crappie fishing isn't what is used to be. One guys talked about catching 12-13" fish steadily just a few years ago.



Too bad they don't realize that not enough fish are being harvested to allow them to grow any larger.

[dsacalaitman]

i noly keep 2-3 smaller than 9 in cuz i love to fry my fish whole.but after that i will cull the smaller ones after all we have a 50 fish limit and even then i only keep a few round 25.
keep it wet
take a kid fishing

[Fishin_Magician]

Main reason I like them to be 9 inches or more is the meat. Seems like in between 8 and 10 inches they seem to double in size of filet.

I think its the crappie comming of age anything under 8" is a kid 10" plus is a young adult.

I do agree with dwm367s though if a small pond is over populated you need to take some crappies out or they will all be stunted.

~Fishin' Magician~

[J White]

Here on the bigger lakes it is 9" on some and 10" on others -
I agree on the small lakes getting overpopulated though,
one I sometimes fish is only about 160 acres and it gets too
many in it sometimes. Everybody gets word of it and hauls out
6-7" crappie by the coolerfull - even heard a few say the warden
encouraged them to catch as many as they could, disregard the
limit. A few years after this happens, there are usually a bunch of
good slabs in there. Personally, I can't deny the thrill I still get when
I see a big one roll up on it's side by the boat, but I prefer to eat about
a 10" fish - just don't like the thicker filets as good - but I sure won't
turn em down. I have been guilty of sorting out the big ones and sending
them to my Father-in-law and keeping the smaller ones for myself.
Funny - he's got a catfish pond and used to feed them and eat them,
but I've got him so spoiled to eating crappie, he doesn't even feed the
cats anymore! I used to sneak the green carp in on him too, but just
this year he has started to notice and says they aren't as good

[Backlash]

The lake I mainly fish has no size limit on crappie but we never keep anything under 9 in. It's just not worth the effort to filet 'em smaller than that. We usually get enough for a mess in the 10 in. plus range we don't need to keep the "teenagers".