Thanks to Greg for letting me age his 15" 2.97 pound (lets call it 3 pounds) crappie. It was a healthy female white crappie that was full of eggs, fat, and shad. It was almost 6 years old (born the spring of 2008). Below is a picture of one of the otoliths (ear bones) with the annuli marked. To tell the age, you count the annuli (growth rings), similar to counting the rings on a tree. This otolith is about the size of your pinky finger nail and is located in the fishes head.

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Anyone who catches a 3 pounder and wants to know it age (like me), give me a call 501-412-0356 and we can work something out so I can age it. Especially if you catch a fish in my district, D-10 (VanBurren, Cleburne, Perry, Conway, Faulkner, and White counties).

Thanks again Greg for letting me collect this data. We don't see too many 3 pounders in our samples, so this is very valuable info to us.