Crappie Length to Weight Conversion

[Kidd]

My rule of thumb has always been 15" to get 2 lbs. However, I just got back from a trip where I caught a 14 1/4" fish that weighed 2.00 lbs even. Fattest Fish I have ever seen. a buddie caught a 16 1/4" that weighed 2lbs 10oz. Biggest crappie I have ever seen.

[road kill]

"Hey over dare cousin rockinchair, I just talked to Greg and he told me dat-dat **** 16 1/2 " crappie you have hangin on your wall aint spose to have no wiskers on it, is it?

[Scott Steil]

Crappies in Mille Lacs...there aren't any. At least none that we talk about.LOL

Yes, there are some monsters. Finding them in the winter is not the problem, getting them to go usually is. Lots if little crappies this year and when I say little I mean little. Huge year class of 5 inchers in there. The lake is so clear you can site fish them in the shallow water right now.

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[slabberknocker]

Does this formula take into account a white crappie or a black crappie? All of my blacks weigh more than the same length whites. Blacks have thicker shoulders on them.

Slab

[schr0563]

It has been my goal for several years to get a 2 pounder. Now I know that many of you seem to think that a 15 inch fish will push 2 pounds regardless of the situation, but 2 years ago I caught a crappie measuring exactly 15, which weighed exactly 1 pound 12 ounces. The scale had been recently calibrated so that I know it was accurate. I caught the fish in early March when it should have been its heaviest weight. I guess I just got the runt of the litter.

[Scott Steil]

Time of year!!!!!

[can it be luck?]

How many minnows and depth bombs that were stolen!! .........PS: Scott's pretty much right.

[7 grand kids]

Here's another weight estimation method found in published data. Over 3700 hundred black crappies were measured and weighed from mostly Minnesota and Wisconsin waters by fisheries personnel. Weight vs length data was plotted on a graph and regression analysis used to fit a curve. Curve fitting was excellent. The nice feature of this data is that it is only for black crappies.

The formula derived for calculating crappie weight based on length from the plotted curve is:

crappie length in inches raised to the power of 3.4622 and multiplied by .0001541. Accuracy is stated at +/- 5%. Data from all lakes were lumped together. It is important to note the researchers found grouped variation from different lakes which support many of the responses posted in this thread.

Using the generalized formula a 15.5" black crappie is 2.03 lbs. The only safe bet for accuracy vs length is to weigh it.

Good fish'in

[rockhardinmn]

hey Road Kill .. just checked that crappie no whiskers on it that i can find. maybe the cat licked them off
part of the problem as i see it is people weighing fish on bad scales .. once the guy next door got a crappie and was telling everyone it was a 2 lber .. looked it over .. layed the head in my hand and body on my arm . from the tip of my middle finger to the inside of my elbow is 16 " . i looked at him ,, told him to take it to bait shop to be weighed be lucky if it is 1.5 lbs thing weighed 1.3 lbs .. just 2 weeks ago same thing out on the ice . guy weighed a crapp with a bad scale and said it was 1.9 lbs .. i laughed and said no way .. thasts what his scale said so thats what he was going by .. so i said come on we are off to BJs to weigh it on a different scale . it only went 1.25 lbs .

[road kill]

Hey Rochincair... The problem is people are measuring fish with elbows and not tapes!!

Have Fun!

[NELS-BELLS]

It's been my experience that it takes 15.75" - 16" for a Crappie to weight 2 lbs. I have a Berkely digital and my buddy has a Normark and they are always within +-1oz.
If its over 15" its a trophy and SunnyD, my hat goes off to you for throwing it back.

Nels

[Greg Clusiau]

What this boils down to folks, I feel, is where & when the crappie was caught. I believe all the remarks about fish size/weight but from what I gather, it seems that if it's caught "up north" a ways, it's not going to weigh as much as one that's caught "down south". Sort of like comparing a 15" crappie caught in northern Minnesota to one caught in Mille Lacs. They must run heavier in the central/southern part of the state. A wee bit longer growing season, better forage, etc? Don't know but it's interesting. And I thought Red Lake slabs were husky!

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[Kidd]

This was a hot topic last year also. I usually fish with a group of guy's and I started keeping a log of all the fish we caught over 10 inches. The scale used was a post office letter scale and extremely accurate. These weights were taken immediately after the fish was caught as the majority of these fish were released. We measured each fish for length by closing the mouths and pinching the tails. The follow is the results of weighing 69 fish from 10 inches to 14 3/4 inches. I'm only going to post the mean weight by length, as I don't have time right now to type all the data. However, if anyone is interest in seeing the weight to length on all 69 fish I will gladly oblige, just give me a little time.
This chart goes "Length - Mean weight". I have trouble formatting this so it takes a little work for you to interpret
10 - 11oz
10.5 - 11oz
11 - - 14oz
11.25 - 1lb
11.5 - 1lb
11.75 - 1lb 2oz
12 - 1lb 3oz
12.25 - 1lb 4oz
12.5 - 1lb 5oz
12.75 - 1lb 8oz
13 - 1lb 8oz
13.25 - 1lb 9oz
13.5 - 1lb 9oz
13.75 - 1lb 13oz
14 - 1lb 12oz
14.75 - 1lb 15oz

[Scott Steil]

Timing is everything, I caught a crappie this weekend on Red Lake that measured 15 and 7/16 inches long. I had it measured about 10 times. This fish was 3 inches thick when layed on its side.

The fish weighed 2lbs 7.8 ounces. That is my biggest crappie to date. So, Sunny, I still say your fish was 2 1/2 pounds.

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[Guest]

According to the Sportsman's Connection Map Book, here is there table

Crappie

Inches 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Lbs. 1.1 1.4 1.8 2.2 2.8 3.4 4.1

We caught 12- 14" crappies at Red last year and they weighed 1.5 just over 2 lbs

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en kala
(I fish)