Introducing others to crappie

My brother and I have been hitting our lake pretty hard, never reaching the state limit but persevering 4-5 days a week catching 5-10 crappie a day. Brother is quite adept at filleting them and then vacuum packing and into the freezer. Today we are having a crappie fry down at the lake park in our neighborhood and frying up crappie, home made hush puppies and French fries. We did this a couple of months ago and now we seem to have quite a following. Many folks only thought catfish was good eating until they ate a crappie. There is a move afoot for several to go crappie fishing. Makes me feel real good. Thanks Crappie.com for all your encouragement allowing us now to share.


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Fry them and they will come!!!

Get them to sign up as members, then attend one of the Crappie Camps, get togethers, Flings, Shindigs, or whatever they are called, and you can bet your lucky fishing hat that they'll be surprised & amazed and want to get into Crappie fishing all the more !!

I'm going to play Devil's Advocate here. With new fishermen and teaching them how to catch crappie also MUST come teaching them ethics of fishing. Our society today has very few ethics so most new fishermen aren't going to have a clue as to what is acceptable and not. Fishing ethics are pretty much a personal criteria so using the old "Do unto others as you would have them do to you". might be a good place to start. The feeling of great accomplishment of helping others can soon be over-run by folks who might feel it is anything goes. I'm afraid without some guidance, pretty soon you might have a bad case of buyers remorse. If you get the chance, tell or show them that crowding others, litter, unsafe boat operation, ignoring creel and size limits, and just general being a butt is not going to win them any friends in the fishing community.

I get to introduce new fishermen to the crappie game almost weekly. With that teaching also comes responsibility of letting them know what is and isn't acceptable. Some will ignore you and do things their way and you can't do anything about that. Others may end up being lifetime fishing buddies with some guidance.

Best of luck with it.

Concur with your observations. So far I am introducing them to the spectacular taste of fried crappie, hush puppies, and fries. The next step is to take them on the boat and let them experience the spectacular “thump“ or the disappointment of the “subtle miss.” All in good time can I weave the issues of limits, minimum length, and not shooting at the wake boats (smile). Thx for the observations.


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Do to the not so easy to ketch syndrome many a folk have never known the bliss of a crappie meeting ones taste buds :Rofl
It amazes me when I give them to people who are fishing and they have never had them before ....some the other day asked how to clean and cook them and told me they loved sandbass :banghead

love taking people crappie fishing for the first time. also love when my sons age 9 and 12 pass on all their "knowledge" they have so far to others who have none like tying on jigs, the difference of mono and braid and why we use these at different times of the year and what the difference is in jigging and casting in different areas. gets others hooked when they see the enjoyment of the kids.

Most anglers I've shown how-to's to never have developed the skill level to even find crappie much less keep too many. The most they ever catch is with me and don't have the burning interest to get better finding out all the nuances that can make all the difference. Those that were not as successful before I took them out, have stayed that way.
I know beforehand who I'm instructing and those that I know have been less than nice, are never invited nor offered any advice. There will always be those that ignore the rules and courtesy that I will always keep my distance from but report if I can prove bad behavior - as should most of you.