With all the crappie obsessed guys on this section of the TFF, wouldn't you think that there would be more 3#+ crappie show up....if in fact, there were 3# crappie out there to be caught There is no telling how many fishing-days per month that is put in by you guys alone, in pursuit of crappie, and VERY seldom do we get a report that a 3# one has been caught (not counting some of the posts on "Do you want to catch 3# fish"....with directions). So that would lead one to assume that either the 3#ers are too smart to be caught, or there are damn few of them, and then they die of old age. In my poundering of this deep subject, I thought that maybe we're just not good enough to catch one, but that thinking would also have to rule luck out, and luck is something that just happens, like it or not, so that dog don't hunt. I also thought about the likelyhood of our lakes not being fertile enough too produce a 3#er, but just how many shad does it take, as all of the lakes that I know of are not exactly hurting for forage fish. So what is it, do we not have the gene pool to produce at least a few 3#ers in our North Texas lakes, or are we taking too many of the fish with the genes out of the lakes. Any ideas??

Great post. I probably should and watch for the thoughts of others but..... I think there are a few and by the time we catch the ones we catch the gene pool is diluted enough for them to be very rare. I also think they may school up together under the shad since the bigger fish can't eat them by the time they reach that size.

I always wondered how old a 1,2 and 3 lb fish would be. What is their life expectancy?

There really should be more 3 pounders being caught. I believe that there just aren't that many of them except at Millwood.

I just didn't want to brag about my catches was all Guy.

I think we would do well to throw back more fish. That said, I'm guilty of keeping everything legal. I'm still new at crappie fishing and keeping every fish I can is quite gratifying to me as a newbie. They always get eaten, never wasted a single one. One thing that might help produce bigger crappie would be to change the limit to something like 15 12" fish or something like that. I trust the fish and game biologists understand this better than I do but it would be interesting to see a lake somewhere go to a limit like this as a "case study." By the way, 2 lbers are pretty big crappie, let alone a 3 lder. I've never even gotten close.

Yal could learn from a few of the slimy catfisherman and cpr. Might get a few more trophy fish. But if yal did catch one you would just eat it instead of letting somebody else catch it again.

Could it be that like in the 60's and before deer hunters killed all the big bucks and let the small ones walk.
That created a massive herd of spikes and cull bucks in the woods.
Later as ppl started manageing deer herds more and hunting became big bussiness, ppl went the other direction, killing more cull bucks and letting the great bucks grow up to sire more offspring.

The same thing happened with bass fishing ie. sharealunker program.
It seems that ppl just think that a crappie is a crappie and the big fish genes are not passed on (at least though a concentrated effort like other sports)
Just my 2cents.

I think a 3# crappie would be awesome to catch. However, the lakes I fish have too much fishing pressure for the fish to ever get to the size. I think every lake in texas has a Crappie guide on it! Most people take everything that is 10". I tend to throw back every thing under 11". On good days I go even larger. I have seen people keep everything they catch at times(while I called OGT). Not sure how long it would take, But it would be nice to see a test lake shutdown for a while to see if the crappie could even get to that size. I have thrown back a few 1.8 pounders during the spawn, but never see any bigger than that comming from Granger.

If some one does catch a 3#er what do you do??? would TPWD in Athens take her and spawn her next spring and put her fry back in North Texas lakes or do they only do bass??? if you take her to BPS in Garland they can officaly weigh her and help you get the paper work started if its a record on the lake you cought her on. how long can you keep a 3#er alive after you catch her?? would BPS "buy" ( in store credit ) her from you??? can TAMU check if the fish in your lake have "the" 3#er gene???? has TPWD done these studies and can we get that info somewere???

there is a lake in coppell called north lake that shut down in 2000 from what I've heard, I bet that thing has some monster fish in it, that is if anything is still alive in there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Lake_(Dallas_County,_Texas)

Squaw Creek should be a possibility. Shut down for almost 10 years.

My one and only weighed 3.19# and came from Cedar Creek. I don't think we have many. By the way Grenada Lake in Miss. regulary produces many 3# fish and it's a shallow muddy lake.

I cleaned 14 in the 3-4lb range yesterday.

What? Chickens?

Heres a cool page. Says the biggest crappie caught was 5 lbs 3 oz. in 1957.

http://www.landbigfish.com/staterecords/fishrecords.cfm?order=weight&sortorder=desc&ID=13

I grew up back in Memphis and fished the big four COE reservoirs and I have never seen a lake here in Texas get the crappie fishing pressure that those Mississippi lakes get.
It does seem odd that more 3lbrs aren't appearing on the forum. I know of several over 3 that have been caught and eaten like it was no big deal. I have been after em a long time and my biggest was officially weighed at 2.95.