Size you keep?

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Originally Posted by Chuckie

I don't measure them; if it feels like it's got meat on it when I'm removing the hook, it goes on ice.

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I'm in the same boat. I also judge from the lake. Some lakes just hold better quality fish than others. A giant in one lake might be average in another. Just depends on if I am out fishing for a meal or out fishing for bigger fish and being selective. If I'm for a meal, the lake doesn't matter. If I'm going for bigger fish, I might not even think about hitting one of those smaller fish lakes.

In the end, they all taste great. I don't have an issue cleaning any of them. Smaller fish I tend to scale and then fillet (not skinning) to save a little more meat. Bigger ones, I fillet and skin.

ANYTHING OVER 9 STAYS IN THE LAKE , ALL ELSE LEAVES .I GOT AND OLD COUPLE THAT MAKE PATTIES (DON'T ASK ME HOW) OUT OF ANY I DON'T FILLET .

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Originally Posted by eagle 1

ANYTHING OVER 9 STAYS IN THE LAKE , ALL ELSE LEAVES .I GOT AND OLD COUPLE THAT MAKE PATTIES (DON'T ASK ME HOW) OUT OF ANY I DON'T FILLET .

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same here,got some dirty looks making people in my boat throw back the bigger gills and big female crappies with eggs still in em.gotta leave some breeders for the grand kids.i have seen small public lakes and private ponds cleaned out of decent gills cause people keep hundreds off the beds.starting to see it in larger lakes,overall size is getting smaller.but some places can take the pressure more than others

2 notches +

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Originally Posted by jcozzz

same here,got some dirty looks making people in my boat throw back the bigger gills and big female crappies with eggs still in em.gotta leave some breeders for the grand kids.i have seen small public lakes and private ponds cleaned out of decent gills cause people keep hundreds off the beds.starting to see it in larger lakes,overall size is getting smaller.but some places can take the pressure more than others

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Same here, but that is only protecting the breeding stock. I very seldom fish bedding panfish, since every male sunfish or crappie caught there has doomed one successful spawn anyway, since that male will lose whatever eggs are already down, also lose his place in the bed and have to start over and even may not actually respawn at all during the current year. The later more for crappies than for sunfish, since sunnies will often respawn even when successful the first time.

We have an interesting comparison here in Minneapolis. Some of our Park Board lakes have consumption advisories on bluegills and crappies and some don't. The harvest is heavier on those lakes that don't and the average size of both crappies and sunfish is smaller there with hardly ever a crappie over 8 inches, while several of the restriction lakes occasionally produce crappies to as much as 14 or 15 inches with an average of 8 to 10. The size difference is quite obvious. The lakes are connected by streams and drainage; so the crappie strains in them are very likely to be the same. Lake size is also similar - in the 300 to 500 acre range.

There has been quite a decrease in meat fishing on the consumption lakes since the restrictions were announced perhaps some ten years ago. There is still plenty of meat fishing going on around here, too much for me to feel comfortable also doing so. The up side to that, of course, is not have to mess around cleaning my catch or having to keep a count on stringers or in baskets.

It is interesting to note that icefishermen very often look to find small lakes and ponds that generally get overlooked by fishermen as jewels that often contain the biggest panfish. Lack of fishing pressure in them generally does not result in automatic overpopulation and stunting. Although it can in some cases, the key to biggest size panfish up here is life expectancy, since it can take a bluegill or crappie a full decade to reach 10" in the north country. True slab crappies are all that old in Minnesota; so they have to be allowed to live that long.

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Originally Posted by no1son

It is interesting to note that icefishermen very often look to find small lakes and ponds that generally get overlooked by fishermen as jewels that often contain the biggest panfish. Lack of fishing pressure in them generally does not result in automatic overpopulation and stunting. Although it can in some cases, the key to biggest size panfish up here is life expectancy, since it can take a bluegill or crappie a full decade to reach 10" in the north country.

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Good stuff.