Determining a good size slab

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Just want to know what most of you feel is a nice sized bluegill and crappie when it comes to size (length, weight, etc.)

[Walleyeguy31]

In the metro 8" to 12" crappies are almost "huge". And 6" - 8" Sunfish and Bluegills are sought after. I can fish a lake with 14-16" craps and 9-10" blues and sunnies with the occaisional Pumpkinseed, but it is 150 miles away.

[rosspj59]

Nice sized bluegills are over 8 inches and crappies over 10 for me. Some lakes these size are considered great and others these are small, kinda depends where you are at. Have you been over to the Mississippi this year for panfish?

[Matt Johnson]

It all depends on the area. Like mentioned in a previous post, in the Metro an 8-inch plus gill is an above average fish, and anything over 9-inches should be considered an outstanding fish. For crappies in the Metro, anything above 10-inches is nice, and anything over 13-inches should be considered an outstanding fish.

For other areas that produce larger pannies, a gill over 9-inches should still be considered an outstanding fish, but anything 10-inches and over is considered a monster in my book. And for crappies, anything 15-inches and over is an incredible fish.

On average, I'd say gills over 8.5-inches and crappies over 11-inches are all nice fish...

[DEADhead]

up in my neck of the woods, I'd say 9.5"+ for bluegills and 13"+ for crappies is a nice start for a good size.

We luckily don't have many of the stunting problems up here as in many heavily pressured lakes in the metro area. Many of the lakes up here are susceptible to winterkills, due to being shallow basins. The few fish that survive these events basically gorge themselves foraging due to the lack of competition, like a kid in a candy store. This allows for some monster sized fish. It takes some work finding them, but once you do, it is unbelievable pulling these fish through the ice, or over the gunwales.

I agree with Matt that any gills over 10" and crappies over 15" are truly beasts.

[Flaco651]

There is a couple spots here in the south metro tucked in between the heavily pressured lakes that have many nice slabs. They are under fished because there is no boat launch, no parks or piers. Canoes or ice fishing is the only way to get at them. Last fall out of my canoe we landed many crappies weighing around a pound, kept a few but released many many more. My best was 15.5 inches and really thick, released. All the ones we were catching in the fall were good sized, only on artificials. We did catch some small ones with the big ones through the ice on waxies, spikes, and crappie minnows. It was good to see a strong class of the littler ones coming up after the bigguns. I know of another guy who caught a 16", 2 lb. fish through the ice there also. I haven't been there since the spring but I will probably check it out soon after hearing all this crappie talk.

[lotsofish]

When I'm fishing for sunnies, here's how I determine if I keep it. When I grab the fish to take out the hook, I place my hand around the thickest part of the fish. If I can get my hand all the way around it, it's too small. If I can't reach my hand all the way around it, then it's a keeper. I've never measured the length of a fish that's just big enough to keep (I'll have to do that next time), but I have kinda big hands and I think it's about 7 inches.

[lars0926]

When determining a good size slab, I like to compare the size of the fish to the trouble I went through to catch it. For example, last Saturday was cold and rainy, but I found a ton of these sized guys in about 20FOW just inside a deep weedline. It took me about 15 different type of lures and colors to find what would call them up. A "good sized slab" is the result of my diligence.