Keeper Crappies...?...Eaters...???

[jBohmer]

I have the motto of "if you're gonna kill it you better eat it." And not just for fish. If I can make a meal out of it I am gonna eat it. I look at how much meat is on the fish as that can vary from length to length. If I get a mess of 10"ers and I need a couple of more that are a tad under what I would normally keep I may take them to make a meal. Common sense can do wonders for human being in my opinion. Good luck fishing all!

[minnbowhunter]

It depends on the lake, I can make a meal for the wife and me with a maybe 3 12 in. fish. If they are running smaller, I will keep maybe 5 or 6 fish that are 8-9 inches. I never take more than 1 meal of fish at one time. That way, if the bride want's fish for supper, she needs me in the fish-house.

[reinhard1]

smart man. good luck.

[jBohmer]

It depends on the lake, I can make a meal for the wife and me with a maybe 3 12 in. fish. If they are running smaller, I will keep maybe 5 or 6 fish that are 8-9 inches. I never take more than 1 meal of fish at one time. That way, if the bride want's fish for supper, she needs me in the fish-house.

very smart! I am just getting my wife to fish with me. And now I am working on her to appreciate meals of fresh fish. I like your style. And your Avatar pic.

[SFC]

I have the motto of "if you're gonna kill it you better eat it." And not just for fish. If I can make a meal out of it I am gonna eat it. Does that include mice?

[jBohmer]

I do not have mice in my house... But since I said it I will let you know when that happens. God forbid!

[Feathers Rainin]

If the question was about quality as table fare, crappies are NOT like walleyes as size relates to eating quality. I have never eaten a bad or tough crappie and I have had my share of 12"+ fish.

The difference in taste of big pies and little ones is huge unless you are on a lake they are growing real fast like the red lake phenom. I brought a buddy to a lake and he kept a 15 incher cause I wasn't there to tell him to let it go. He ended up only keeping the one so he gave it to me. I cooked it up with my 10-11.5's and the big guy tasted like mud. You could actually see the difference in meat color before I even cooked them up.

[goblueM]

that was drilled into me as a kid... only took a couple sparrows and blackbirds goin down the hatch before i stopped shooting them with the bb gun

[jBohmer]

Good point. I did not really mean "rodents" with my post, but I guess I set myself up for that one. I used to get 2 to 10 sparrow kills with my single-pump Daisy on one outing when I was a kid. That was in a large garage in an old farm property though. It was almost literally like "shooting fish in a barrel". No pun intended. Kinda like pulling Eyes out of LOTW!

[SFC]

Good motto in my opinion.