I was just wondering how other people felt about the 10 inch rule, I'm from Oklahoma so I don't really have a dog in the fight and will abide by state of Texas . Although I've fished a few lakes that it's pretty hard to catch a good mess of 10 inch fish. I personally think that an 8 inch fish is better tasting than 12 or 13. In Oklahoma me and my ole man used to let the big ones go and keep the smaller ones to eat. Momma always liked the thin and crispy ones. I like a thicker fish myself but not a 13 or bigger. I just think some lakes produce bigger crappie than others, that could be a disadvantage to other anglers on different lakes.

To me, bigger is better: for the action, and for the taste as well.

I am from Oklahoma to. A lot of the lakes are 10 inch limit with a 37 fish limit here.what I would like to see is a 12 inch limit and a 25 fish creel limit. It would hurt some people but just think of the quality of fish we would have just my option you know about options everybody's got one

Bobby, I fought that battle on here before. Don't be surprised to get a bunch of hate from them Texicans. They don't like our 'no size limit's' and would love our 37 creel limit. Any
fish, in any quantitiy is fair game to them. Conservation is a dirty word.
I tossed out a 15 fish creel limit and a 12" minimum size limit and got beat up pretty good.
But, who knows for sure? They could be right. I could be wrong.

I researched the "average" crappie size a few times
and most states have an average below 10 inches it seemed to me
there are 2 trains of thought on this subject
one wants just whale crappie
one wants dinner
I know way back when we filleted a high number of crappie that were in the 9 inch range
matter of fact if it was much over 6 or 7 inches we ATE it
I think the only way changing the legal size could be employed here would be to apply certain regs for certain lakes .
some places are full of large fish ,some don't seem to have very many at all
lake fertility and other factors would have to be studied
and there would be a ton of research involved
and since the 10 inch thing seems to work ok
and the state itself said the crappie maintain themselves
it prolly aint gunna change anytime in the near future

As long as my freezer has crappie for me to consume, I'm a happy camper.

Gman

I think if you made the limit a 12" minimum, you would have too many lakes that couldn't put out fish that size, because of the increased strain on the food supply. You could look at it two ways. 12" minimum to let the fish grow longer, but you would have a lot of small sexually mature fish to reproduce and diminish the food supply, so fish wouldn't get that big. Then, you could do a 8" or even no minimum to get the smaller fish out, to let some of the others grow bigger. Personally, I ain't keeping a fish under 10", because I like mine fillet, but some like em whole. I think the 10"-25 been in place awhile...if it ain't broke, don't fix it... I would like to see it kept at 25 per person total. I mean, come on....50 fillets a person per day, is more than enough....

Only public lakes and ponds are subject to the "governments" rules! You can take all the fish of any size you want from a private lake or pond and see which tastes better.

I personally DO NOT like to clean smaller fish as you do not get as much meat as you do for the same amount of time filleting the fish. Why spend 1 minute a fish cleaning small crappie when you can clean a big crappie in one minute and get TWICE the meat?!

Trust me when I say they all taste the same unless there are contaminants in the water. I usually only keep 10.5 or larger (10.5 just in case the ice makes them shrink on the way home!). The fresher you eat them the better they are!!

SlabHappy I totally agree on the 25 on creel limit. When I am fishing by myself I want keep over 20 and sometimes want keep that many. If I am fishing with a friend and he wants to put some in the freezer we will keep all we catch until we reach the limit. As far as the 12 inch limit goes I look at those lakes Mississippi that produce 3lb crappie on a regular basis. For sake of a argument look at what a size and slot limits have done for those funny looking green fish and stripers. I really don't care one way or another its just an opinion and everybody got one

Ketchn I agree with you that kind of limit is not for all lakes some of our lakes are no size limit some are 10 inch. Some are only a 15 inch creel limit. I know of 3 city lakes that at one time had a 3 fish limit on them they done that so people would stop fishing them so they would have to hire a gate keeper. You can only eat so many of them fine morsels.

Okie Bob I know what your saying I use to fish with a guy that would say you like bacon don't you well he is as big as a piece of bacon isn't he

If it's big enough to get on the hook it's big enough to go in the skillet.
I heard that somewhere in East Texas up near the Oklahoma border.

I fished in Louisiana for 15 years and I can tell you the 10" rule is a God send in Texas. They fish all day for a mess of hand size crappie. Sure in the spawn you can catch some larger fish but for the most part the fish are never allowed to get any size on them. Why filet small crappie that in a couple of more years would yield 3X the amount of meat? Because those are the rules.

I'm also a supporter of the 25 fish per day limit. Look at Lake of the Pines today. 100 boats with each angler keeping 25 crappie per person. I'm surprised a lake can maintain any adult crappie with that kind of pressure, but somehow it does. If the limit was raised to 50 crappie per angler everybody would be keeping 50. I guess it's like the speed limit, everyone will do what is legal, maybe a little more.

I Don't mind cleaning a smaller fish.... An 8 inch fish is plenty enough meat.(on broken bow lake) I'm Saying that some lakes have smaller crappie and other lakes have bigger crappie. If you fish on a lake that is constantly producing 10+ crappie, then you would think that a smaller size limit would be silly. And like I said we always let the big ones back in the lake. As far as quantity I nev keep more than I can eat, but I fish every other weekend.

It's getting interesting.