On Tuesday went to my favorite crappie lake where for the past four or five years we usually catch 9-12 inchers, very few less than 9", and I almost never brought any of those home. This was the first time we targeted crappies there this year, and I could hardly believe it, but every one we caught was under 9". My wife wanted to have some to fry up, and she doesn't mind cleaning them, so we took home 30. Crappies are her favorite freshwater fish, she says they taste like crabmeat. These little ones were really good eating, maybe better than the bigger ones.

I wonder if all the bigger ones vanished during the past year. We trolled over tons of these smaller ones, school after school 10-20' in diameter and about 3' thick. They were biting really light, so maybe there were still big ones around, but they just didn't feel like biting. I was reading that in Minnesota the crappies go through cycles where one size class dominates in a lake. Anyway it should be fun to watch these little guys grow up over the next couple years! Do you guys ever come across this kind of thing? To go from never catching any small ones one year, to catching only small ones the next?