I was wondering what size the crappie have to be before everyone keeps them and takes them home to eat? 10"? 12" or would you keep an 9" or even a mess of 8" crappie?

If you keep small crappie how to you clean them? Do you just gut and scale them and cut the heads and fins off? Or do you try to filet small crappie?

I can't seem to find the large crappie in the lake that I fish. They are all small size. I can catch plenty of these small buggers but I am getting to the point that if I can't find a bigger crappie I may have to get a road trip planned.