Question: Where do all those fish end up when numbers are caught?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against keeping fish. But when a see a table full of panfish - especially nice crappie, I wonder what happens next:
cleaned & filleted?
some eaten / some frozen?
some given away?
some or all dumped?

My club recently had a panfish tournament and most of the fish were dumped. One angler won with 24 lbs. and would have kept them alive for release after the weigh-in but his aerator didn't work. I doubt the majority of dead or dying fish were kept to eat?

My opinion about weighing fish in a competition is that unless anglers plan on keeping fish, fish should be released alive as much as possible and the only way to do that is with reduced creels and good aeration. Granted, most lakes have fish populations not dented by the bucket brigade, but the smaller the water, the more impact tournaments have due to delayed mortality and the reduction of quality fish.

Your thoughts.

Off topic:
Is there enough meat on a 9" crappie or 5" sunfish to go to the trouble of filleting? What about all those bones? Is the skin removed or the fish scaled?
The reason I prefer catfish 1 lb or heavier is not having to worry about either.

:popcorn

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spoonminnow

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against keeping fish. But when a see a table full of panfish - especially nice crappie, I wonder what happens next:
cleaned & filleted? YES
some eaten / some frozen? Mostly Frozen, Occasionally Eaten that night
some given away? A few Times to Family and Friends - Most for large family fish fries at our house
some or all dumped? NEVER

Off topic:
Is there enough meat on a 9" crappie or 5" sunfish to go to the trouble of filleting? What about all those bones? Is the skin removed or the fish scaled?
The reason I prefer catfish 1 lb or heavier is not having to worry about either.

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MY answers in Red

Most tourneys I've fished will not weigh dead fish and at the very least have a penalty for dead fish. Also most states have laws against wanton waste.

Yes plenty of meat on a 9" crappie, I've even cleaned 8" crappie as long as you know how to clean fish I bet you could eat 7" crappie. A crappie is a sunfish so I assume you mean bluegill and perch and the answer to that is also yes.

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Every fish in the pictures I upload to this site are immediately cleaned after the picture is taken, and every one of them has been eaten. I often fry or blacken fish for my immediate family, sometimes for a group of friends, and sometimes, I bring some to my older aunt and uncle who live across the street. Some of you may have seen a "thumpnet" before. It's a plastic coated floating net with a heavy duty zipper where you can put your fish in it and drop it in the water, tied to the boat. I always put the first four or five fish I catch in it to make sure that if I don't catch enough to clean, I can release them alive. Once I think I have enough to clean, then I start putting them in my ice chest. The fish that are in the pictures I share are pictures of the ones I kept in the ice chest. I immediately release any of them too small or any I don't intend on keeping. As far as the smaller 9" fish are concerned, my wife actually prefers small, thin fillets....almost like a potato chip, so sometimes, I keep those 9" fish just for her...lol.

Personally I only keep what I intend on filleting for me and my bride. If I have a bad hook of a fish and its demise is a certainty they make the trip home and get cleaned.

I would say that most tournaments have dead fish penalty. ��

Oil and breading used?

Small bones no big thing?

Fish are scaled?

Time it takes to clean a 9" crappie?

Never eaten one but catch a bunch!

I definitely eat my fish; it is a mixture of fresh catch and pulling some out of the freezer. These days I don't keep as many whole fish in the freezer because the kids prefer fillets, although my wife and I do like to have some whole ones fresh because it tastes better, especially dishes where the fish is not battered and deep fried. We do keep enough stock in the freezer for a small fish fry or to give to a relative, but my oldest fish is currently from February--after cooking a few lbs of fillets for my dad's birthday party, my oldest fish will probably be April.

Generally, a 9" crappie makes a reasonable fillet, although I tend to go from 10" and bigger unless it is a rough day and my wife insists on fresh fish for dinner--definitely not smaller than 8". 2+lb crappie are definitely scaled and cooked whole; between 1-2lb can depend on the mood of what we feel like eating.

Whether or not a 9" Crappie has enough meat on it to bother with cleaning it is relative to the waters it came from. I've caught 9" Crappie that you could read a newspaper through from one lake, and on another lake they'd be thick as my thumb. Some lakes we have size limits, the shortest of which is 9" ... with other lakes being 10" minimum.

I've pretty much gotten into the habit of filleting all the fish I bring home, be they for me or family or friends. But, I was raised on scaled fish and that's the way they were cleaned up until I was in my 30's.

I go by Bill Dance's motto :
"Catch a lot of fish, keep what you can use and release the rest"

All my fish end up in someones belly wether fresh or frozen for a later date, NEVER dumped or wasted ever.