A good mess of fish to fry and or put some back in the freezer is considered a good trip to me. Unless it is December through the end of February. I fish Lake-O-Pines and you have to keep the first 25 you catch regardless of size those 3 months. If I don't catch a limit and am ready to go home its still a great time in the outdoors. I have been skunked on some trips and others had to let some get off before I could reel in my line to keep from going over the limit(not very many of those days).

It slowed there some not bad lots of other lakes are hotter right now mural has Deen good spillway ought to be good in the bottoms

More conservation is required up north simply because fish grow a lot more slowly in cold water and the winters probably kill off more fish in the shallow glacier "lakes" than the fisherman do. The fact that fisherman in MN only need to catch 5 or 10 crappie to make that limit doesn't mean that they are more virtuous or humble though. They are still putting a similar dent in the relative fish population for their environment. I guess a fellow could grow up in that environment where a 12" fish is a trophy and then be alarmed by the big numbers of big crappie caught down here without much concern.

The people that really focus on catching limits of crappie day in day out are those coming from hardship or having parents or other family coming from hardship. They learn to highly value the food that they are bringing home. A person who's major interest in filling the freezer will generally not brag about it on a forum. They are the "silent majority" that scour the forum for details but don't post. Guides making a living on crappie fishing will post limits to show their prowess. However they also have more of an interest than anyone to preserve the resource. Perhaps this is why you'll see opinions from crappie guides on the major metro lakes open to more restrictions. On the flip side, for a 30,000 acre lake in a county with 30,000 people, no-one is going to clamoring for more crappie limits. It would be absurd given the abundance of crappie available.

Yankee's are like hemorrhoids, if they come down and go back up there alright. But if they come down and stay down there trouble!

You got no right to bash Texas and Texans. Go on back to Minnesota and fish with the Dixie Chicks.