Hey y'all! Glad to be here. Been reading some post and seems like a ton of good information for catching crappies, and bunch of good folks as well. Haven't had as much time as Id like to fish lately, what with being married and having teenagers in the house, and working two jobs, but did sort of rediscover crappie last year and was able to get after them a bit. Planning to do more as time allows.
Wife and kids were a bit skeptical when I brought the first stringer of crappie home last year. I didn't say much, just went about filleting them and then got out the cast iron skillet and some bacon grease, seasoned and floured the fillets and commenced to frying them up. One bite and their eyes got big as they exclaimed "Wow! These are really good!!" Heh, to me that was kinda like saying fire is hot and water is wet, but what ever I was just tickled they liked them as much as I do. Afterwards it was decided that I needed to go out at least once or twice a week to catch more crappie. In addition to pan fried, my wife made fish taco's with em, and my middle boy who seems very intent on becoming a chef, made crappie croquettes. Eventually I told the kids that if they wanted more taco's, croquettes, etc. they'd have to help catch the primary ingredients. And just like that I had three teens dropping their various electronic devices and climbing into the truck to go catch dinner. Food seems to be a good motivator (with my teens at least), and while some might call it bribery, I'm OK with that.