Keeping Crappie during Spawn thoughts.

[bdorman]

This will be my first spawn season. My plan is that if I can identify a female full of eggs I'll release her. In any case, I only keep 12"+ because it's not worth cleaning anything smaller. If I ever catch a whopper (16-17") I'll take his/her picture and then throw it back hoping to catch it another day.

Of course, now that the Jig Tying forum has turned me on to tying my own jigs I plan on catch a whole lot of 17"-ers.

[Legato]

I keep pretty much everything I catch. Crappie have to be pretty small for me to throw back. Same goes for all fish I catch. During spawn or not.

-within legal limit of course.

[lunkerhunter]

they taste too good smothered in grits to not keep a few. I always keep less than my limit and see no harm in it if they dont go to waste.. Habitat destruction will dimish a fish population baster than an armada of jig trollers ever could.

[bfish]

As my knowledge and skills on how to catch them outside of the spawn have increased, along with TN implementing a 10" size limit and possession limits (x2 daily limit), I find myself keeping fewer and fewer during the spawn. Partly because I end up catching lots of short fish during the spawn, and partly because I know I can catch fish later on (or early on) so there is no "pressure" to harvest immediately.

[shelldecoy]

I keeep a limit if I catch them . Not to worried about hurting the population on truman lake

[dallas1]

if they of size that i can filet they go home with me as well. i was just curious what you guys thought. thanks for all the input.
Now i want to try crappie with grits lol i love crappie and i love grits sounds like a good combo.

[NIMROD]

We have a huge spawn every year here and it helps to thin out the population. It is normal to catch as many as 100 to cull out a limit of 20. Crappie on fertile lakes tend top overpopulate unless fishermen take out a bunch or the predator fish are big and plentiful.

[Lowellhturner]

As has been stated by others, crappies and especially bluegill left unchecked particularly on smaller bodies of water are EXTREMELY prolific. They TEND also to have a high "rate of recruitment", ie, as soon as an older larger 1 is removed there are usually several ready to compete for it`s place immediately. Loss or absence of habitate is a much BIGGER concern, but it is all but IMPOSSIBLE to seriously "hurt' their overall numbers. Quite the opposite; removing too many 1st tier predators that prey on them will cause their numbers to greatly increase and their average size to decrease. Short of depth charge "fishing", there shouldn`t be any long term effect from taking several limits during the spawn on most waters...enjoy !

[throwback]

As has been stated by others, crappies and especially bluegill left unchecked particularly on smaller bodies of water are EXTREMELY prolific. They TEND also to have a high "rate of recruitment", ie, as soon as an older larger 1 is removed there are usually several ready to compete for it`s place immediately. Loss or absence of habitate is a much BIGGER concern, but it is all but IMPOSSIBLE to seriously "hurt' their overall numbers. Quite the opposite; removing too many 1st tier predators that prey on them will cause their numbers to greatly increase and their average size to decrease. Short of depth charge "fishing", there shouldn`t be any long term effect from taking several limits during the spawn on most waters...enjoy !

That is what everyone tells me here. The pond/lakes I live on/near are supposedly overpopulated with crappie, and only of couple of people that live out there fish for them (like me). About all you can catch are largemouth bass (I eat them too) and crappie. I clean and eat most all of them except ones too small to fillet.

[BigKev77]

I look at it this way. If I keep a fish in November what is the difference in keeping a fish during the spawn. I am still taking a fish that would otherwise spawn. If I was worried about a fish spawning I would never keep a fish.