10" Crappie Length Limit

[Touch of Class]

Will the length limit ever change to 10"?  In my opinion there's no point to clean a 9", most of the time you get only a small slither of meat off of them.

 

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

It is 10 on most lakes, bot sure why Lake of the Ozarks it is still 9.  I agree, the meat difference in a 9 to a 10 incher is a lot

[liphunter]

I was at Pomme last weekend. I agree. The 9 inch looked so small. I didn't keep them unless they  were over ten. That one inch seemed to make  substantial. difference.  Of course I'm the guy who wouldn't buy Xerox because we already had carbon paper. 

[tjm]

You can set your personal length limit at 12"  if you want more meat.  Wait, 14" may work better for you personally they will have more meat at 14".

 

[liphunter]

Yep, I spect you be rigt 

[Ham]

Crappie are a difficult fish to manage. In some lakes, it takes a long time for them to get to 9 inches. 

I set my minimum keeper length at 10 inches years ago. I also don’t keep them longer than 13 inches. But as long as people are following the regs of the lake they are fishing, I don’t care what others keep. 

I got a new Fish cooker for my birthday and I intend on frying fish a lot more often.  My Catch and Release % is going to go down as soon as I use up the fish I caught last year. 

[BilletHead]

6 minutes ago, Ham said:

Crappie are a difficult fish to manage. In some lakes, it takes a long time for them to get to 9 inches. 

I set my minimum keeper length at 10 inches years ago. I also don’t keep them longer than 13 inches. But as long as people are following the regs of the lake they are fishing, I don’t care what others keep. 

I got a new Fish cooker for my birthday and I intend on frying fish a lot more often.  My Catch and Release % is going to go down as soon as I use up the fish I caught last year. 

          Yes exactly as Ham said. That and small waters where they are introduced they are even harder to manage. They can overpopulate quickly becoming stunted.  I know of places managed by MDC new lakes that were stocked with Bluegill, bass and channel cat. Then some bucket biologist wanting crappie dumped in a few. Yes for a few short years crappie fishing was good then nothing but dinky fish. Happens all the time. 

  BilletHead says if they are legal fry them up!

[MOPanfisher]

Places like Omme, LOZ and Truman give up huge numbers of crappie, sizes vary depending upon age class etc, but can be plenty large too.  9 inch limits, why worry about it.  Keep whatever legal size you prefer.  Fried uo you will never know the difference.

[Johnsfolly]

The crappie run small in Little Dixie but are extremely abundant and likely stunted. If they set a 10 inch limit the overall size could get worse. What that lake may need are guys that can actually fillet 6 inch fish and to keep all that they can. 

[Ham]

3 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

The crappie run small in Little Dixie but are extremely abundant and likely stunted. If they set a 10 inch limit the overall size could get worse. What that lake may need are guys that can actually fillet 6 inch fish and to keep all that they can. 

If you aren’t opposed to scaling and frying them whole, the small Crappie are excellent. For better or worse, I grew up eating filllets.