Good eating sized keepers...

[blackdog1101]

Good post Da Chise

[JeffB]

The lake I'm on has a 11" minimum for crappie and it seems to be helping the lake.

[MILLELACMANIAC]

sunnies -8"and up crappies 9" up

[Wookiee]

Excellent post da chise.

[magic_minnow]

I got bashed at an east metro lake for keeping my limit of 8" crappies. I caught 4 over 11" and they all went back. Why do people still think that keeping small pannies is a bad thing?

[Wookiee]

It's not, they were just too macho to accept keeping smaller fish. I actually release all of my fish that are over 11 inches for crappies and over 8 inches for sunfish. Granted they will probably get caught by someone else down the line but I feel better about letting those fish go on metro lakes, need to keep their genetics in the lake even if it is only more spawn before they get caught again..

[rosspj59]

The lake I'm on has a 11" minimum for crappie and it seems to be helping the lake.

So there are a lot of fish over 11"s or just a lot of fish up to 11"s?

[metro fisherman]

I think its ridicules to keep a 7" crappie, 10 of em would barely be a snack. I keep 10" and up unless its really fat. Perch and Sunnies more depend on the lake. Then again I dont harvest many fish. The problem isnt keeping large fish its the number of people keeping large fish. I think regulations should be in place to insure populations will not become stunted in the future. Thats my 2 cents and if you dont like it i dont care.

[ICE_KING]

If its over 7'' it hits the pan!!!

[JeffB]

Originally Posted By: JeffB

The lake I'm on has a 11" minimum for crappie and it seems to be helping the lake.

So there are a lot of fish over 11"s or just a lot of fish up to 11"s?

It seems like a high percentage of the fish that I catch are still over 11" and have gotten 2 just under 15", but I'm not getting limits by any means. When targetting craps I would say 3-6 keepers a night is average and throw back about the same.

[rosspj59]

Sounds like a good lake Jeff.

[frazwood]

I think its ridicules to keep a 7" crappie, 10 of em would barely be a snack. I keep 10" and up unless its really fat. Perch and Sunnies more depend on the lake. Then again I dont harvest many fish. The problem isnt keeping large fish its the number of people keeping large fish. I think regulations should be in place to insure populations will not become stunted in the future. Thats my 2 cents and if you dont like it i dont care.

You might find it ridiculous to try and eat ten 7-inch crappie, but if the lake is full of these fish... it might be better for the fishery if you kept them.

Basically, there is only so much food in the lake for all of the fish to grow. Selectively removing the smaller fish leaves more food around for the bigger fish to eat.

One other problem with many of our lakes is the lack of large predators. Northern pike/muskies, bass, and even walleye are effective at eating small panfish... but too many of us fisherman target these predators and take them out of the lake.

Personally, I think it'd be a good idea to start setting maximum size limits instead of minimum size limits for many game fish (especially the bass, northerns, and walleye). It's not particularly healthy to eat large fish anyway due to the mercury in them.

[Charley]

But remeber throw some back for the time. and don't fill your freezer and than keep more.

[BeezeHound]

The lake I do most of my fishing on has an 11" min and 5 crappie limit so pretty much anything over 11" goes in the bucket.

[Chisox]

Sounds like your fishing Lida. We used to fish that lake every year during late ice for the monster gills when I was a kid, great lake. I usually keep sunnies over 6 but let go anything over 8, since I fish in the metro I believe this is the right thing to do. Crappies it is 8 and over, then I release anything over 12.

[Cbreeze]

It sounds like to me, we are all in agreement...for the most part. Sunnies 6-8 crappies 8-10.

However, I find myself being drawn to a particular post by NWbuck. His post put a smile on my face! I just had my 6-year old son out the other day and that "is that a keeper, Dad?" statement was made. I too usually throw most fish back now-a-days but found it a great time to teach a lesson to a future fisherman. I too remember being small and wanting to "show Mom" the fish I had caught all by myself. I explained to him that I use my hand to measure "keepers" and 8-10 of those would feed the whole family. Now that he had a number, and a visual to relate to, he and I proceeded to catch close to 50 fish...sorted through them, with his help...and kept only the amount we needed. I found it interesting that after explaing it to him, he'd immediately say, "Dad, throw him back. He's too small to keep, right?" Priceless!

Start'em young...teach'em right...there's hope for tomarrow, fella's!

Breeze

[Chisox]

I know what you mean, my six year old daughter and my 11 year son both know what is to small and they tell me what we need to throw back.

[tacklebox7FF]

8-9in gills and 10.5-12in craps.. the larger the gills in the lake means larger brood in the long run! remember selective harvest.

[goose89]

Great topic and info. Hope this selective harvest mentality catches on more, esp. now with the late ice bite coming up on the "hot" panfish lakes. I would help these "hot" lakes stay hot lakes in years to come.

[Traxxx]

Heres one to think about. I cleaned two crappies the other night and in their stomachs, each one had six 1" sunfish. So I actually kept fourteen fish.

[Traxxx]

Or did I save twelve more sunnies the next day by keeping those two crappies?

[tacklebox7FF]

something to remember... a diet one lake for a crappie is different then the crappies on other lakes.. It could be countless things... who knows could be walleye fry one day, sunfish another, insects one day, etc you never know?? keep a couple of the medium to smaller fish. just enough to get a taste, and don't go overboard!