Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! > Crappies
At what size do you start keeping crappie?
Unclegillhunter:
--- Quote from: Van_Cleaver on Mar 03, 2019, 01:51 AM ---Enjoyed reading this. Usually 10" is my lower limit but don't have to worry much about the top end . I almost never keep more than 7 anyway since that is a couple nice meals for my wife and me and I don't like freezing them. A couple of the private lakes I fish have really nice crappie; average is 10-11 but rarely over 12". I surmise that there is mega competition for the same food base so once they hit ten it takes many years for them to get substantially bigger. Here's a few from my last trip; actually tossed back the largest since I had plenty.
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Nice job! My wife won’t eat panfish unless they are still quivering when I drop em in the pan.
Keep it safe! JDL
Kevin23:
--- Quote from: Van_Cleaver on Mar 06, 2019, 12:08 PM ---Perch was the only keeper I got that day, a nice 11". Weeded through a bunch of small ones as well. There are some lakes around here (Poconos) where they actually average that size, but getting permission to fish them is another story. ;)
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The red fins and coloration is amazing! We don't see anything like that around here, just pale almost white/black ugly ones.
DR.SPECKLER:
I keep 10 to 11”.anything under or over go back.8” specks are so thin around here that i can see my fillet knife thru the fillets.not worth my time cleaning them.amazing the difference between a 8” gill and speck.bluegills have way more meat on them at that size.
Mr. Charlie:
--- Quote from: hnd on Jan 28, 2019, 10:38 AM ---we have a body of water that had a crappie problem tons of them but no size. DNR put no limits on the lake to try and encourage people to take out as many as possible.
We went down and caught as many 7-8" crappies as our heart wanted. cleaning them was ok, (no rib meat) but ultimately was not worth the effort and i'm now 9-12" as our limits.
Micah
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I agree depends on the body of water. Sometimes you have to keep small ones in order to get big ones in years to come.
BeenPerchin315:
I feel people should do as we do and be able to control ourselves with responsibility, perch are plentiful so my start is around 9.5-10” and we get a lot of em from there to 13-14” any bigger will go back. Our min size on calicos is 9.5” so at least cant keep the babies of a scarce species, only keep enough for a meal or 2. Not that I catch more then that. And bluegill I don’t target so if I happen to land on some big ones go home for a meal average ones and smalls go back. I think my biggest take home on calico or gills is like 10-15 fish. Keep the fishing quality as good as possible for the next generations
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