What Size Crappie To Keep?

[Beef46]

Everywhere you look you see and hear people say, "Keep the small to medium, let the bigger ones go." The logic behind this is that it keeps our lakes from being full of stunted crappies or sunnies for that matter.

So my question is, define small to medium. For crappies is it 7"-10"? Do you look at lake specific and take an average and keep those on the lower end of the middle of the scale?

Thanks in advance for the input.

[This message has been edited by Beef46 (edited 07-28-2004).]

[Corey Bechtold]

Beef46, If I was keeping crappies for a meal I would try and keep the 8-10 inchers. They are great table fare and letting the bigger ones back into the lake feels really good.
Some lakes may have a lot of fish over the 10" so it may be hard to get them under that mark. In this case I would try to just keep a few if I was hungry. To each their own though.

Corey Bechtold

[This message has been edited by Corey Bechtold (edited 07-28-2004).]

[CrappieJohn]

That "keeper" threshold is sort of a flexible thing in my mind. Not all lakes are going to hand out 10" fish....many just haven't got the genetic backbone for that. And as Corey has stated, some lakes will give up awfully nice fish in the 12-14 inch range, but feww down to 10. And as Corey said...take just enough for a meal and try to take the smaller fish. Corey has summed up the table quality issue nicely....those 9-10-11 inch fish are the finest eating. Think about it. If you were going to pick out a hog for slaughter, would you chose the nice lean 260 pounder or the 480 pound brood sow?

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[Beef46]

Thanks for the input gentlemen. I typically do keep them in the 9-11" range with the rare larger one (since I can't seem to catch them). The largest I kept was a 14" and I felt somewhat guilty about it. My kids talked me into keeping it.

Just curious what others thought. My practice is right in line with your posts for the most part.

Thanks again.