Thread: Now that we caught some crappie how do you cook them?

I highly recomend Buttery Crisco

p-nut oil cooks the cleanest and drains the best on the paper towel - broiled crappie marinated overnight in italian dressing before cooking then put onion and bell pepper on top when broiling - it is fantastic - I disagree with fatboy on the food saver we have the atilla 1100 and it works great for us - we put ole king crappo in the freezer as well as flat flounders and shrimp we harvest with cast nets - of course we eat them quicker than they can freezer burn but we have had no problems with the foodsaver system - we have the high end model but only paid a little over $100 at sam's club
crap-king

Moose, I just freeze any leftover fried filets in a baggy and eat them with in a few days for my lunch. Thaw in the microwave for about 1 minute then bake in your toaster oven til crisp. Makes a good sandwich.
This year, I started putting my raw filets in smaller bags so we don't have so many leftovers. - Roberta

Originally Posted by ncnat

Bill, How long did it take you to find that? LOL

Only took a few minutes. Entered "Tilia" in the search link and it came up with the thread name. Took about 5 minutes to find the post.

I also save the oil. To clear the oil, fry potatoes or onions and the oil will clear right uo. Onions will not flavor the oil and are pretty good to eat when crispy.

Hey Moose,

I use a larger deep fryer but I still only fry 3-4 pieces at a time. I was told by an old timer that when the filets float to the top of the grease, they were done. This usually only takes 3-4 minutes, but I let them cook a little longer than that, probably no longer than 5 minutes tops. My wife likes them a deeper golden color and more crispier than I do. I use the granola oil also, but was told to try peanut oil by one of my fishing buddies who says it gives them a little different taste. Haven't tried it yet so can't offer an opinion on that. You and Larry still fishing Patoka?

May give the Peanut oil a try. I am sort of worried about using Peanut oil. I don't know what kind of pesticides they use on the peanut crop these days. Some people are alergic to peanuts but they never say why they are allergic. My theory is that it's something that is sprayed on the crop to kill the insects and destroy the weeds. If those chemicals kill bugs and weeds then they sure as heck can't be good for us humans. Some people may not be alergic to peanuts but instead they are allergic to the pesticides that are used on the peanuts. But then I am an environmental scientist who is trained to think about that sort of thing. Some times I wish that I didn't know what I know about pollutants. But I need to figure out what they use to make the Canola Oil. It's probably some plant that is sprayed with pesticides also. Just can't get away from the Pesticides these days.

Larry and I did real good two or three weeks ago. He told me he was taking his fishing stuff back home. They shut off the water at his camp during the winter months and he doesn't stay there without water. He still may drive up to fish. H*** I am getting sick of being cooped up in the house after fishing all summer long almost every other day. If it were not for the computer I would have to go out shopping and I can't do that much or I won't have any money left to buy minnows. LOL Heck I went to walmart yesterday and picked up some 1/16 oz lead head jigs, some thrill bobber stops and some of those plastic bobbers tops with 4 holes in them like Jerry Blakes uses. I also got a new spinning reel from Shimano. LOL I just could not resist that one. It's the perfect size. Now I have to find some good fishing line to put on it today.

My boat is parked in the Garage and my truck is out in the weather. If that doesn't show where my priorities lie then nothing does.

If the weather is not too bad ( above 50 and not too windy I may fish Patoka Lake a few more times.) I have a minnow Bucket of Larry's and those maps that I need to get back up to him. So either I am going to have to hook up with him to fish or mail his minnow bucket up to his house. LOL

I was just looking at a scan of one of the maps and saw some nice spots near the main boat ramp on Patoka Lake. Things like a big ditch that runs from the old river channel all the way into the cove for about 300 yards. That ditch is not marked on any other map of the lake that I have found. But it's shown on the maps that Larry let me copy.

Are you still fishing a lot? I was hoping that you and your wife would have gone to the TeeZur Tournament but I didn't see you there. Guess that is a long drive and it's hard to make the trip every year. I was lucky that Cane Pole offered me a place to stay Friday night an I was able to drive down and make it there and back. My old truck is going on 153,000 miles and it's broke down on me twice in the last month. The battery cable came undone and my battery died on me. And then just a few days ago I ran out of oil when I was out in the boondocks. Turned out that the shop that had changed my oil and oil fiter just three days before this had not use the correct sized oil fiter and the oil had been leaking out for three days. I didn't know it until the oil light came on and the oil pressure gauge started reading zero. Luckily I had two extra quarts in the truck with me and was able to put some oil back in the engine and make it to the repair shop. They found the problem and installed the proper fitting oil fiter on my engine and gave me three quarts of oil. I was luck that I didn't ruin my only engine on my only old truck. I would have been up a creek without a paddle if that had happened. So I have to be careful and make sure that the truck is going to make it when I go on those longer trips. It's one thing to have to walk 10 miles back home but it's another to have to walk 170 miles back home.

Last time Larry and I went fishing at Patoka I caught 17 crappie and Larry had his live well full. He got there early and got a two hour jump on me at the fishing hole. LOL I was catching up with him as I started to use live bait for a change. But he is the master of Patoka Lake crappie and I am just a beginner compared to him. I spent more time messing with line twist also. That cuts into my fishing time a lot. He seems to have figured out a way to get the line off the tip end of his rod faster than I can. I will have to duplicate his methods so that I can spend more time with the bait in the water. He showed me one spot that has a lot of cover and ditches running though this bay. The crappie are there everytime we go to this spot. But they are not the big huge slabs that I have seen caugth at the Crappie USA tournaments. Although larry said that he has caught some of those slabs at this spot from time to time during last summer. I should have gone up there when the big slabs were in that spot. I suspect that the slabs area getting harder to find. The lastest fishery biologist report said that the crappie at Patoka Lake are not really growing very fast. I met a guy yesterday that fishs Hovey's Lake and may give Hovey's lake a try this next March. He said that there are some big 2lb crappie in that lake. And the fishery biologist guy said that also. According to the state biologist Hovey's lake has the fastest growing crappie in this area. A five year old Hovey Lake crappie will be two or three inches longer than a Patoka Lake 5 year old crappie. I guess there is less fishing pressure and better growing conditions at Hoveys' than at Patoka.

I can't fish Hoveys lake very well as they restrict the motor size to 10 hp instead of putting a speed limit on the lake. Its too big to just use the trolling motor. I need to have a small 9.9 hp kicker motor on my boat to fish lakes like Hovey and some of the other motor size restricted lakes in IN.

I hate the fact that IN restricts the motor size to 10HP on some of our lakes since my motor is a 35 HP. It's done to make it easier to enforce the speed on these lakes. It's a lot easier to see if the motor is over 10 mh than it is to use a radar gun to catch people going too fast. And those no wake rules are hard to enforce also as it's hard to not make a wake even when at idle speed. So the motor size limits make the DNR job a lot easier. They do it to keep people safe as those lakes are shallow and full of stumps. But it sure would be nice for me to get to fish Hovey's lake once in a while.

Originally Posted by Larry C

Hey Moose,

I use a larger deep fryer but I still only fry 3-4 pieces at a time. I was told by an old timer that when the filets float to the top of the grease, they were done. This usually only takes 3-4 minutes, but I let them cook a little longer than that, probably no longer than 5 minutes tops. My wife likes them a deeper golden color and more crispier than I do. I use the granola oil also, but was told to try peanut oil by one of my fishing buddies who says it gives them a little different taste. Haven't tried it yet so can't offer an opinion on that. You and Larry still fishing Patoka?

Yep, another novel. Need to write a book titled"Mooses Thoughts".