I see and hear guys talk and post limits multiple times a week and it makes me wonder, how often do you eat crappie? I enjoy limit trips like anyone but rarely keep a limit, nothing wrong with keeping limits but how often do you keep a limit and how quickly do you eat said limit. When I see someone that has kept 100 crappie in a 2 week span and they do it regularly, I just have to wonder, maybe they are pescatarians?. I throw back way more than I keep simply because I don't care to clean them that much but I do make sure I have a few meals in the freezer before throwing back. I do not have many big fish cook outs and maybe that is the difference. How many have fillets that they caught 6 months ago? I look at it the same with hunting, how many folks need to have 5 deer to make it a year on venison but so many get sausages and jerky and that is probably why they feel the need to fill tags. Since I butcher all my own wild game, I don't want to do 5 deer so I try to get 3, that will feed my family for a year with no need to buy red meat.
Don't get me wrong, to each their own and if it is legal to do so then go for it.
Just an honest question, no need to take offense or get mad about it. Ok I am sure to get blasted so what say you?

Never

I eat crappie a couple of times a month. I keep a limit probably 2 times a month. What a lot of people don't understand when it comes to keeping limits after limits is that most likely it is not just them eating them. I supply my in laws with fish, my grandparents (Who don't get out much) and any other close family member that needs some. I say me and my wife eat probably 15-20 crappie a month. I also used to keep limits back when I fished JP and my stepdad and me would go and drop them off in a poor area of Oak Cliff to one of his friends. To the outsider it looks like you eat fish everyday when that is not the case. Crappie are good eating fish so it should be no surprise that most people want them to eat.

I give away more crappie than I eat. When my mother was alive, I would take her enough crappie to eat once a week all year long.

I would say I eat crappie a couple of times a month , In the past I have hosted fish fries for a dozen people or more.
Will do it again post covid.

good luck


MO

Couple times a month but like was mentioned above-give a lot away or have a fish fry for family. I take friends and family out fishing as well and send the fish home with them. I am not about limits myself but rather about catching and keeping quality fish. Rarely keep the 10-10.5" anymore unless it's just a really tough day. I really don't like the stigma of "it's only a successful day if you got a limit". Limits are nice but a good day on the water is catching fish-that's what I am all about.

2 x a month also.

every chance i get !

1 to 2 times a month. I'm on the water 4 - 6 times a month. Rarely ever freeze crappie. Much prefer fresh.
Also supply currently to a daughter who is a single parent and has had her work cut at least 50%, a close friend who is unemployed, a couple of single mothers at work. I am selective about the fish I keep and try to stick to over 11" and some times 12" so that I get more meat per fish i clean. If i only have a few nice fish, i give them away to some of the subsistence fisherman i see at the lake.
All that said, I release fish more often than not. Don't recall the last time I kept a limit of any freshwater fish. I do love the Thump.

My wife and I crappie fish all the time. She dont eat fish, and I dont clean fish (anymore). We have an RV at one of the
places on Fork, and lot of older residents ask us to catch them a couple now and then, and we do.
Twice a year I have a good friend that crappie guides, and we'll go out a catch two limits each time. I have friends around Fork that I give crappie to,...my RV handyman, my boat mechanic, a few of the local restaurant waitresses,....and a few others.
We fish about 9 months a year, and usually catch and release all we catch all year. So, after all that I get to eat Crappie about 4-5 times a year, and she eats chicken. jim


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My wife and I eat crappie once a week. I keep a lot of fish and give away many times more than we could ever eat. My neighbors get some. Everyone my wife works with gets some, and we usually have a couple of fish fry’s a year. A close friend I use to work with gives a free cookout/ fish fry for disadvantaged youth in Oak Cliff every summer. I give him everything I have in my freezer. As of this time I have no fish over a month old. Guess I’m gonna keep on keepin’!

Not enough !

Plus #1.

Every chance I get. But, it's just me and the wife mostly, so we'll usually only keep two or three. The rest go back for others to enjoy catching.

Full disclosure, we eat it a few times a month and I have a childhood friend that is not as fortunate as me that I'll give some to from time to time. I typically set out for a limit trip to do one or two cook outs for friends a year. I do not just hand out crappie to people just because I manage limits though. I prefer to return most to the lake simply because I don't like to clean them and in my simpleton brain I feel like it gives more opportunities to catch quality fish in the future. I know I don't even make a dent in the population even in the small lakes I fish. What I have witnessed this year is I have to work harder for those quality fish due to increased pressure and in my opinion, so many limits being pulled from the lakes I fish. They are smaller lakes and in years past would only catch big fish but since about June the numbers of small fish outnumbers the quality fish. I still find some toads but not like pre-covid. Again this is on much smaller lakes than Fork, Palestine, Tawakoni etc. I can say for certain that I don't eat enough crappie for as much as we like them. Think I better hit the lake this week. Thanks for the responses and keep chasing that thump.

Also I guess my dislike of the cleaning process keeps me from being as generous as some of you. Well that and I just don't see a need to keep limits all the time just to give them away but nothing wrong with it for sure and I'll bet those receivers are awfully happy.