From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gill rakers in fish are bony or cartilaginous processes that project from the branchial arch (gill arch) and are involved with suspension feeding tiny prey. They are not to be confused with the gill filaments that compose the bony part of the gill. Rakers are usually present in two rows, projecting from both the anterior and posterior side of each gill arch. Rakers are widely varied in number, spacing, and form. By preventing food particles from exiting the spaces between the gill arches, they enable the retention of food particles in filter feeders.[1]
The structure and spacing of gill rakers in fish determines the size of food particles trapped, and correlates with feeding behavior. Fish with densely spaced, elongated, comb-like gill rakers are efficient at filtering tiny prey, whereas carnivores and omnivores often have more widely spaced gill rakers with secondary projections. Because gill raker characters often vary between closely related taxa, they are commonly used in the classification and identification of fish species. Much of the variation in gill raker morphology is thought to be due to adaptation to optimize the consumption of different diets.
In order to prevent the potentially damaging passage of solid material through the gill slits and over the gill filaments, early gill rakers strained large particles from the water and diverted them to the esophagus. Since an appreciable fraction of this material was nutritious, rakers subsequently evolved as food-trapping mechanisms in filter feeders. Gill rakers, when long and closely set, play the same role in suspension feeding fish such as mullet, herring, megamouth, basking and whale sharks, as baleen in the filter-feeding whales.[2]

Widely spaced Gill Rakers and Big Baits.





This bait is almost 5 inches long. Big baits are HOT right now.



=�s Big Fish!









Lettuce Wrap Crappie.
All ingredients were caught or grown; you can�t get better than this!





Grin!

A gourmet feast!
Nice work

I think I see 38 on that clicker. Is it stuck?

Looks like most of those are black crappie, you are blessed to have a lake with some that big in it! Those are bruisers for sure. Big baits = Big Crappie for sure.

I have started catching some white crappie that size pulling Strike king 3xds. A trick I learned last year. But there are only 5 or 6 per trip. We supplement that with 2" jigs to catch enough for a mess.

How long are some of those bigger crappie?

that gave me an idea for a recipe, crappie stuffed bell pepppers!!!

T Dub, Bobby said it!

Yowza!!!!!!!!

Great post yet again Kirk. Ya know I like the chef picks myself. You got a culinary degree to go with the crappie catch'n masters degree you got?

Cool Post...Props...

Time to

gill raker would have been a good name for a TFF user. wish I would have thought of that.

Awesome post!

Looks "DELICIOUS"......

Man, I gotta get out here more, I'm probably missing all kinds of opportunities to defend myself!

Tommy,

Swing by the garden anytime and fill up a sack full of crappie fixins, don't matter if I am here or not. You won't be disappointed, if fact you will be blown away, it's that good.