Do y'all throw legal fish back? I assumed that we were all in it for the eatin.

All the time. When the freezer is full and I don't feel like cleaning fish, I'm just fishin' for fun. It's actually more relaxing that way.

I'll keep 10 or 15 but that's it for me.

There are plenty more out there for another day.

If I have fish in the freezer I release. No filets and I keep.
Or if we want fresh while we are at the lake, I keep enough for a meal.

this ^^

Yes, catching a limit is great but catching enough to eat is just fine for me and releasing the rest is GREAT TOO!!!

We release most of our fish. We get to go on the steady bases, so I like the fish to be fresh. we usually keep 1 mess of fish. Once we eat them, the next trip we keep another mess.

I'm not cleaaning all my fish, and having to give them away at the end of the year. Don't see much use in catching a limit 2-3 times a month, and cleaning them, just to haft to give them away.

keith

I am appalled when I see the pictures of a group keeping dozens if not hundreds of fish, even though it is legal. When every 10 inch crappie is kept there are none left to grow to be slabs.

Crappie used to be considered so prolific that they could not be fished out. That was before so many anglers with modern sonar took to the lakes. Now the big fish are taken out of the small lakes early in the fall, leaving only small crappie.

I release lots of fish. Even with my daughters and grandkids invited over often for fish dinners, there's just no need for me to keep anything under 11 or 12 inches.

I C&R all the time. When I keep fish I try to stay in the 11"-13" range because that's the size I prefer to eat. Smaller and they don't have alot of meat, larger and the fillets are thicker than I prefer plus I like to think I'm helping the gene pool by releasing the bigger fish.

I love to eat fish,therefore, I fish to eat.....period!

I toss keepers back frequently, if it's a slow bite I won't head home with 2 or 3 fish to keep.

It depends on what's in the freezer at the time. I always make sure there is a good supply should I not be able to go for awhile because we eat them regularly. If I have plenty I release or give them to older people that are bank fishing at the ramp, they always appreciate it.

You bet.

Only keep what we need for a fish fry and always release anything 14 inches or larger. Them big crappie have the good genes and they need to be allowed to keep spawning IMHO. We release the big kitties so why not the crappies too!

I will only keep enough to eat. If I some in the freezes I will catch and release exclusively.

I am with the rest of yall. I'll keep some if I don't have any in the freezer, but otherwise I just catch em for the fun of it.

Same here

I keep enough to get some friends together and have a fish fry. I don't like to take more than I need though. I just love to be out there catching them.

+1

Plus CPR (Catch Photo Release) fish over 2 lbs
I have no business eating a 2 pound crappie.
Improve the gene pool and let someone else catch a biggun.

Food for thought from Crappie dot com -
to let the big ones go.
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Crappie typically don't get off a good spawn until around age 3, at about 10 inches long. Second-year fish, 6-8 inches, occasionally do lay some eggs, but not nearly as many as more mature fish. Crappies in their fairly short 5 or 6 year life span only effectively spawn 2 or 3 years if they are lucky—that is if they live that long without being harvested. These facts should really begin to show us the importance of maintaining certain numbers of mature crappies in our area lakes and reservoirs consistently year to year.

A large female for example may produce well over 100,000 eggs.
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In case you want to read the article-
WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE BITE ON MY FAVORITE LAKE???
http://www.crappie.com/crappie/content/284-article-what-s-happened-bite-my-favorite-lake.html

I keep all the legals I catch. Then give em away to friends, family, or bank fisherman depending on the day.

9 months out of the year I don't get out often enough to make a dent in the population. I might get to go twice in a month, and will generally keep the legal fish I catch. If I were out there 2 or 3 times a week I wouldn't keep them, if only because I wouldn't want to clean fish that often. It's hard to believe we have that much effect on the numbers if you look at what happens on Palestine every winter, all those boats yanking out limits every day for several weeks. They always come back. I think the tpwd does a good job with bag limits and would move the number if needed. Just my two cents.

+1 TPWD has some very smart people working for them that decide how many fish is acceptable to keep. Dont go over the legal limit and I dont have a problem with it. THat being said I dont keep every legal fish bc sometimes I dont feel like cleaning a limit.

I've released all of the crappie that I've caught from the last several trips, preferring trout that I'm catching in the local ponds for eating, at least for now. I've eaten plenty of 2 pounders caught during the spawn too though.

I think that the regulations for Texas are fairly conservative, i.e. the 10" size limit means that there should be plenty of spawning fish. However, like with any general rule, it is not perfect. I recall a few times running into schools of runty crappie in ponds. It seems like a 5 fish general limit would make more sense in a smaller bodies of water, but I suppose rules like that only complicate things.

I suspect factors other than harvesting play a big part into the population. No doubt a big spring flood must be good for the spawn. For Lake Lewisville, it seems like blue catfish and sandbass would take over the whole lake if people didn't fish for them heavily. The old timers tell me it was a much better crappie lake back when it had more cover.