wow, My first crappies

[str8lines]

hey guys, Honestly I tried all last year and caught none.. today I set out to find the honey hole and we sort of found it..at o'shaunnessy in columbus,oh...found a cove with tons of brush and submerged trees..we were bank fishing , and I would say me and my buddy were there for about 4 hours and caught 12decent ones, no slabs but pretty decent...I had a ton of snags and lost a ton of tackle but was worth it...now when I got home, I attempted to fillet them which did not work out well, I am used to catfish and it ended up being little shreds of fish haha, But it was my first time eating crappie and OMG were they delicious and all we did was roll them in flour and fry...better than catfish to me...do you guys have any suggestions on cleaning smaller ones?? Id say 6 inches and up?? thanks guys, I know I am a newbie but share the same passion...take care guys

[Jeepster04]

Just chop the heads and gut on the small ones. No need to try and fillet. Not enough meat, but it can be done. Good to hear you found a few and lost tackle is a necessary evil when fishing for crappie. If you ain't snaggin up you aren't crappie fishing.

[fishmannyj]

Just chop the heads and gut on the small ones. No need to try and fillet. Not enough meat, but it can be done. Good to hear you found a few and lost tackle is a necessary evil when fishing for crappie. If you ain't snaggin up you aren't crappie fishing.

Yep scale and gut then pan fry!

[ready2fish]

good job , now that you caught some your going to be hooked

[grizzlysteve]

nice job. only thing better than crappie is more crappies. if you're not losing tackle(especially from the shore) you're not catching all you can! and next time use instant potato flakes instead of flour, best breading in the world for anything.

[skiptomylu]

When you fillet them just remember their bones are not near as big ad bass or catfish so you must be careful not to cut through their back bone. Don't know how you did it, but just cut down to the back bone as close to the gills as you can and turn the blade sideways and cut all the way to the tail without cutting the skin off, flip over the skin with meat attached and the cut it off the skin and then repeat on the other side.

Just keep in mind they are much easier to cut through places you don't want to. Kind of a soft fish.

As some one said though you can just scale & gut them and cut the head off and fry like that.

Skip

[Eager Beaver]

Cleaning a 6 inch Crappie is such a waste. That is why most States put a size limit on them. 9 inch is the smallest I know of for size limits. Anything smaller than that is a waste of time, whether you fillet or just scale and take the head and guts out of them. There just isn't enough meat to make it worth while. You are headed in the right direction being a member of this site. There is a whole lot of good information that is easy to understand and if you have a question than their is always someone that will be willing to answer your questions on any subject. Knowledge is the best fishing tool that you can have or purchase. Learn all you can about the quarry that you are after and then you have a better chance of catching them. You can buy all kinds of tackle and jigs and other paraphinallia but if you don't have the common knowledge of what you are going after then you have just wasted your money. EB

[skiptomylu]

Cleaning a 6 inch Crappie is such a waste. That is why most States put a size limit on them. 9 inch is the smallest I know of for size limits. Anything smaller than that is a waste of time, whether you fillet or just scale and take the head and guts out of them. There just isn't enough meat to make it worth while. You are headed in the right direction being a member of this site. There is a whole lot of good information that is easy to understand and if you have a question than their is always someone that will be willing to answer your questions on any subject. Knowledge is the best fishing tool that you can have or purchase. Learn all you can about the quarry that you are after and then you have a better chance of catching them. You can buy all kinds of tackle and jigs and other paraphinallia but if you don't have the common knowledge of what you are going after then you have just wasted your money. EB

Yes our size limit here in Texas is 10" min. except for the winter (here on Toledo Bend) and I believe that is because of the "Chicken Coop" (famous spot for winter crappie). So for a 3 month period I think it is, you have a no throw back policy so every crappie caught is to go into you cooler and the limit here on T-Bend is different than other Texas lakes at 50 per person per day on T-Bend and 25 on other lakes. This is because we share the lake with Louisiana.

Skip

[gabowman]

No need to fillet the smaller ones. Scale 'em, cut the head off and slit the belly. Remove the entrals, wash 'em up, and theyre ready for the grease.Take a look on YouTube also to see some pretty descriptive examples of filleting crappie, both with a regular knife and an electric knife.

As long as there's no law about size limits on the fish youre catching....keep a mess or three until you get your fill on the crappie. Then maybe you'll become more selective on what you decide to keep.