If one fishes the beds (and I can't resist it once in a while, myself) it pays to remember that every male taken, even if released is one failed nest. Males may or may not renest. The females tend to assemble off the actual nesting area a bit and will recover and still spawn if released. The bigger the female the more eggs she carries and the higher quality they will be. If she is not in shape to spawn she will not be there. The females scatter their eggs between a number of male nests; so the bigger she is the more extensive her bigger and higher quality eggs will be distributed. IMO those are the best breeding stock to maintain; so I suggest that spawn harvest be limited to smaller females, and the bedding males not be targeted.

Up here in Minnesota we get a lot of aborted spawning due to some dramatic weather changes. That usually means the males desert nests and may or may not start over. If you see year classes missing from your crappie population that is normally the first thing to consider anywhere you are. A bed can also be dispersed by too much commotion. It may reform and it may not, it is the touchiness of the bedding males that is the cause.

There is no question that up here smaller average crappie size results from over harvest, but that varies from lake to lake. My opinion is that overharvest is more often the cause of reduced size than overpopulation depending on the size of the water. Very small waters can very easily end up with stunted overpopulated crappies, especially true in ponds that are not actively and carefully managed but around here anyway IMO that is not a concern so much on larger waters, say over 100 to 300 acres especially if there are other species around that prey on fry like bluegills and perch and larger predators that prey on juveniles.

One lake here deep in the metro is a very good example. About a decade ago when I started fishing it, the crappies averaged 7-8", the 9" fish were rare, and the 10" and above fish were unknown. It was heavily harvested, but about half a decade ago the DNR posted consumption advisories on the crappies in it and they got heavily reported in the media. The harvest declined dramatically, and even the first year the average size started to inch up. Now 12 and 13 inch crappies are reported pretty regularly and the biggest I heard of last summer was 15". A nearby lake of similar size and fish community that did not get hit with the consumption advisory is still harvested at the prior level and till only produces 7-9" fish, heavy on the smaller sizes.