I thought eating whole fish (like Asians) will make you smarter (Smile). If we filiet then it will waste at least half to 2/3 of meat.

I have noticed over the years(maybe its just me) but if you have a bad spawn year cause of drought conditions it will show in a cpl years with the size of fish you catch. I know a lake by me that has a ton of dinks, just one after another. When i started fishing it they were mainly in the 10-12 inch range. It had problems with keeping water and now mainly dinks but if you catch a keeper it WONT be under 14 inches. They are either 6-8 inches or 14 or better but the bigger ones are hard to find and few. This place is very small maybe 5 acres and a long walk to get to it so it doesnt get much pressure at all.

IMHO ...the best fix is .....
put a bounty on water turkey ,that would help more than anything else ....
every other crappie has water turkey scars on it no matter what lake i ketch them in .....
some even have multiple scars ....
and i never seen water turkey like we have them now ....
huge flocks everywhere eatin the fire out of crappie and bait .....
i bet that by itself would make a HUGE difference .....

I am with Jacob 645, scrape, fry and eat. Just great!!!

I guess I have been out of crappie fishing too long because all I catch are 8 to 10" and not very many of them.The limit doesnt seem to bother me since I usualy only catch 3 or 4.I just started back crappie fishing last summer when I retired,they are sure a lot harder to catch then sand bass which is mostly what I have been chasing.My two grandsons like a lot of action so that is what I have been chasing for several years.I want to think all you guys for all the tips and pictures that get posted,it makes me want to try harder to figure them out.Maybe the spring spawn will make it a little easyer for me.Agan thanks for all your posts.

I fish fort phantom a lot used to be 8" size limit and you couldn't catch one over 7" bumped up to 10" now you catch some good fish, It's worked there quality and quantity wise, now with bass it went up to 16" and it was hard to catch keepers in tourneys normally one fish would win it, state changed back to 14" this year decided it didn't improve there fish surveys. It did take some time on the crappie to improve but well worth it. I don't keep alot of fish but whenI do there good ones 12" or better, very meaty

I was watching Outdoors in the Heartland and they were on Lake Rend in Ill. They said that since they put a limit on the crappie the fishing had gotten much better. It's a different kind of limit and interesting....you can keep 10 crappie 10" and above and 15 under 10". I'm sure it wouldn't be good for all lakes, but interesting none the less.

I saw that same show Tony. It was interesting. I'd like to fish where they were a little.

I guess I missed on word choice... I should have said "bigger" crappie instead of "trophy" crappie. Not that interested in trophies per say, just thinking about the occasional 3 lb fish or more 14+ inch fish. 3 lb fish are very rare in this state. I've seen several very well accomplished crappie fishermen who have never caught one even fished TX waters their whole lives. Just an interesting deal to me. I love crappie fishing and we're blessed to have so many good lakes in this state.

What are you filleting them with, a chainsaw?

Exactly. Filetting when done correctly there is VERY little waste unless you like picking thru bones while your eating..

I think doing away with the size and bag limit of the fish that eat the crappie would do wonders?
I caint keep count of how many LMB ruin the crappie fishin for a few minutes when they cruise thru. I know they do cause I catch em. Really ticked me off once and I just kept em and ate them too. Prefer the succulent baby LMB but 7# and 8#'s will eat too.
And if I can ever turn those big flatheads that just strip my line, I'm gonna eat those suckers too. Note to self: take cat rods next time too.