Thread: Releasing big fish

We know what the 2 and 3 lb crappie have made.We do not know what the 10-11 in will be.10-12 in crappie good eating.The 2-3 lb crappie release some back to make hopefully 2-3 lber's. Like raising live stock.you want to keep some of the healthy ones.sell a few to keep the herd going.Our two cents.

Was and still a bass fishermen want to be crappie fishermen LOL. Bass fishing We were releasing everything except the ones that were hurt.Now crappie fishing we catch a few and keep 10x 2 fillets "20" for the table and a fish fry.Release a few of the bigger healthy full of eggs crappie.To do their thing.

Some things I can be sure of I have been fishing for crappie for almost 60 years. 1. So many more fishermen. 2. Faster boats cover more water in a day. 3. Electronic have improved sooo mush. 4. Gear has improved so much from the cane pole.

Here in Oklahoma the Fish and Wildlife along with The Corp. of Engineers have not done a good job of managing our Crappie. State Wide legal limit is 37 any size. Who need too take 74 fish for two person daily limit?

I think the goal is to improve the overall size of the take, as well as numbers. It also goes that the largest, strongest of any species carries the particular gene that made it that big and that strong. Animal courtship leans toward this as well in propagating the species for the benefit of them all. It would seem logical that releasing these big & strong specimens should improve the overall gene pool as well.....just as with animals, should it not?

In any case, up here in the northeast, with short seasons and growing periods, a 2 lb. crappie may well be over 6 years old. Probably older. So we make sure we release those fish of the best gene pool. Maybe it matters.....maybe it doesn't. But it just makes us feel better in doing so.

You could take home 100 per person and you won't hurt the population. If keeping 37 was hurting the population, they would change it. Takes 500 crappie to spawn to replenish the previous years harvest on most lakes. That's not many! Can't over fish them in a normal sized lake. EVER!

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Originally Posted by Cane Pole

I've outlived a lots of crappies, mainly cause ate 'em.

Me too. I also outlive cheeseburgers.

I've heard it all: Don't take the females because they have eggs, don't take the males because they protect the beds, don't take the big fish because they are your good genetic class, don't take the small fish because they are up and coming and you never know what they will be. It really is that bad. I read an article a week or so back in a magazine covering throwing back males, in the exact same magazine was another article talking about throwing back females!

Every body of water is different. What type of food, water clarity, and sustainability for the amount of fish it can hold. There is not enough fish and wildlife biologists to study every body of water out there.
Here is how it actually works:
One guy keeps nothing but males
One guy keeps nothing but females
One guy keeps small fish
One guy keeps big fish

(you can also substitute "Lady" for "Guy"). In the end, it is a wash.

That said: You keep what you want, I'll keep what I want. Both of us are either helping or hurting depending on which one of the numberous "professionals" you listen to. For me, I don't like them over 12 inches. Sure, they look cool, but they taste like crap (not crappie). I don't have any desire to mount them and hang them on my wall for buddies to see (I have very few of them anyway). I rarely even take photos of them. I know what I caught, I don't need to brag about it with a photo to one of the "buddies" I don't have!

Everything on the internet is true!

To the best of my knowledge and I have read everything on crappie I can find for the last 30 years, northern crappie live longer but have a much slower growth rate and southern crappie have shorter life spans but grow much faster. My home lake had stripped bass introduced in it 30 some years ago so no one fishes for crappie on it. The stripped bass predate the crappie which in turn makes a strong survival instinct in the crappie. For 13 years I have seldom caught a crappie under 14" maybe at most 5 small fish a year. Two years ago there was a flood and most of the strippers went over the spillway and the lake was in the trees so crappie had no predation from fisherman or fish because all the boat ramps were closed due to the flood. This year I catch 150 fish just under legal limit to get a limit of nice crappie. Given all this it would seem that just 1 good spawn solves a lot of population problems. The down side is the stripers will return and start eating crappie again.

The short answer. I eat them.