Thread: Question about size of crappie to keep to eat during the spring spawn?

Originally Posted by arkansasbowhunter

Oh here we go again. Its all the trawlers catching all the crappie. I see plenty single pole guys on here catching just as many fish. A limit is a limit xring no matter how they are caught with a yo yo, single pole in each hand, or 6 poles. You gonna ban the little old lady sitting on the bank or in her boat with 5 cane poles too? It doesnt matter the method used because there are guys fish 2 poles ad catch just as many as he rest of the trawlers. I guess we can next be limited to the number of day we fish too so we can only take a limit 1 day a week lol. Just my opinion

If I spider rigged like alot do using minnows, I'd kill hundreds of Crappie If kept any or not. Years ago I remember trolling minnows and all the small fish swallowing the hooks. Here you can run yourself ragged taking off small fish trolling minnows.

I will never allow a difference of opinion to influence my choice of friends, I have Democrat friends, I have republican friends, I have friends who spider rig, which I hate, lol, but they, I hope will remain friends.

Then again, I have never had a opinion that I feared stating, I think some of you are thinking that I am putting myself above you because I choose NOT to spider rig. Thats not the case, to me crappie are the ultimate fish in the food chain, a fish I love to eat and I also love to catch them on jig and bobber, tight lining, poleing the brush, bumping a 1/8 oz. jig across a rocky bottom. I also admit that I have hooked crappie too deep, and if it was a small fish, I have tossed it back. The question was,,what should we keep, I answered that question in my first sentence, the rest of that post was simply my opinion.
I really believe that with todays electronics, and the sheer number of crappie fishermen the resource is taxed, possibly beyond its capacity to rebound. I also believe that tournaments are the worst possible thing that could have happened to crappie fishing. I give credit for the original tournaments in fresh water fishing to Mr. Ray Scott, he turned a wonderful past time into a run and gun marathon, my first bass boat cost the princely sum of $2,011.00 rigged out....in a few short years, the same boat cost $8,000.00............the trend continues with crappie...


Thanks for reading my opinion, concerns, whatever you wish to call it, and certainly feel free to differ in your opinion. Its still a free country, mostly.

Lets get rid of the spider riggers, long liners, yo yo's and have only one man and one pole per boat. LOL!!!!! I believe a limit is a limit no matter how you catch them. I have watched many old men with one pole out fish me and catch bigger fish.

Oh got side tracked 10-12" is what I like to fry

I spider using nothing but jigs and nibbles. Rarely will one swallow deep and be killed. If it does it goes in my box toward my limit. I don't cull once fish go into my cooler. Thats just how I roll. Being versatile is key to saying with the fish in my neck of the woods. I cant tell you about spidering with miners as i hadnt done it in a long time. A lot of people do use minnows fishing and not spidering so are we to outlaw live bait cause it aint fair to the fish? Good thing I use plastics.

I remember the first time we took J.W. fishing when he wanted to "see how that spider rigging works", he looked around the boat and said, "are you sure we don't need any minners?", we just laughed! That is the one big difference in the way we fish ..... the fact that WE DON'T USE MINNERS....strictly jigs! If they don't want to bite a jig they can keep on swimming! I don't think J.W. has bought a minner since that day either and judging from his pics and posts, hasn't needed any, LOL!!! 95% of our fish are hooked in the roof of the mouth or the lip. Believe it or not, there is a science and a methodology to successful spider rigging. It's just like every other method, 20% of the spider riggers catch 80% of the fish. Look around, they ain't all just pulling in fish after fish... Just because you are dragging around a string of minners don't mean you are catching fish.........I also wanted to note that very very few of those 10-11 inch fish ever make it over 2 lbs. and a 2-3 lb sow puts out a lot of eggs!!! You got to leave a few for seed or our sport will fade. I know this will upset a lot of folks but I wouldn't mind outlawing fishing during part of the spawn, period. To me that is the worst time of year to fish anyway. Too many Yahoos churning up the water in a frenzy during their once a year crappie trip!! The best fishing for me is thumping the Crappie when I can't see another boat on the water! I'm also in agreement with Xring in that we should all be friends even though at times we agree to disagree.

Originally Posted by arkansasbowhunter

I spider using nothing but jigs and nibbles. Rarely will one swallow deep and be killed. If it does it goes in my box toward my limit. I don't cull once fish go into my cooler. Thats just how I roll. Being versatile is key to saying with the fish in my neck of the woods. I cant tell you about spidering with miners as i hadnt done it in a long time. A lot of people do use minnows fishing and not spidering so are we to outlaw live bait cause it aint fair to the fish? Good thing I use plastics.

X-Ring tell me what you know about Piney. I fish Illinois Bayou, Delaware and Goose Island with my nephew from Russellville. Mainly the waterworks dam and strip mines in the Bayou.