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Torches and pitchforks would undoubtedly come for you if you ate a 6-pound bass and had the audacity to post about it on social media. The mob\u2019s anger wouldn\u2019t be completely unjustified as large bass are excellent breeders that are important for producing the next generation.<\/p>\n
But what about a giant crappie? If you\u2019re a conservation-minded angler who loves a fried crappie sandwich, what\u2019s the best-sized crappie to keep?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I asked that question to two biologists from opposite ends of the country. Their answers were as different as the bodies of water they manage. They also come with a healthy dose of \u201cit depends.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lake Fork is one of the best fisheries in the country. Ten anglers received century belts at a recent Bassmaster Elite Series event there, and the winning weight was 130 pounds 15 ounces. The lake also produces giant crappie. I talked to Jake Norman, who is the Texas Parks and Wildlife district supervisor for the region that includes Lake Fork. He says the crappie in Lake Fork are short-lived, but fast-growing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have some of our lakes where fish can reach 10 inches in one year, which is legal length and sexual maturity. So by two years, pretty much all of our crappie are 10-plus inches and reproducing,\u201d he says. \u201cTheir max lifespan is five to seven years and the average is three to five.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Norman says that while large crappie produce a ton of eggs, they aren\u2019t the most important breeders in the lake. The younger fish \u2014 1 to 2 years old \u2014 are actually better breeders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may or may not produce quite the capacity that the largest fish do. But they\u2019re very viable eggs and they\u2019re more than capable of sustaining a population,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re in Texas or a similar southern state where crappie grow quickly, a 2-pound fish is perfectly fine to keep.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re catching two-plus-pound crappie, they\u2019re at the end of their life anyway. So that\u2019s part of the reason why they\u2019re not as valuable or as important to sustain the population as people think,\u201d Norman says.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a big but<\/em> in the equation, which is the specific lake\u2019s management goals. If you\u2019re fishing an overpopulated lake, the biologists likely want you to remove smaller fish to help reduce the population. Norman can give specific advice for people fishing Lake Fork, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would truthfully say, without a doubt, harvest whatever size fish that are legal and that you like to eat,\u201d he says. \u201cHarvesting larger fish wouldn\u2019t impact the population anymore than harvesting 10- to 12-inch fish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Read Next: <\/strong>How to Catch Crappie<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Nathaniel Lederman is the fish biologist for Oneida County, which has 1,270 lakes, and is one of the best fishing destinations in Wisconsin. I asked him the same line of questions as Norman, and his answers show the drastic difference between southern and northern crappie.\u00a0<\/p>\n Managing crappie in Lederman\u2019s region is not straightforward. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you put a length limit on a lake, you see variable impacts among the different lakes,\u201d he says. \u201cSo you can put a length limit on one lake, it\u2019s a success, but you put that same length limit on a different lake, and it doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s because unlike the continually warm waters of Texas, Wisconsin crappie can have variable spawning success. <\/p>\n \u201cI think you can boil it down to, at least within Wisconsin, the boom-or-bust nature of crappies. You\u2019ll kind of get a year where there\u2019s a really good recruitment and then the next few years, you\u2019re not going to have good reproduction or recruitment,\u201d Lederman says.\u00a0<\/p>\n This cycle has an effect on the size structure of a lake\u2019s crappie. <\/p>\n \u201cSo as that big boom year progresses through and gets older and larger, that\u2019s carrying the population,\u201d Lederman says. \u201cAnd as people harvest their numbers, we\u2019ll get fewer and fewer. So as long as the population isn\u2019t stunted, releasing some of those individuals across the entire size structure of black crappies would spread out that pulse of individuals, hopefully making it last for a longer period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Whereas the Texas crappie die off after about five years, Wisconsin crappie can live much longer. <\/p>\n \u201cWithin Wisconsin, we\u2019ve aged black crappies anywhere from age zero to 15,\u201d Lederman says. \u201cAge five crappies are typically around nine inches [up here]. Granted, that\u2019s very system specific because you can get some systems where you can get a nine-inch fish in two years, and then other systems it can take much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a northern angler who is looking to conserve the crappie population in a given lake, Lederman says that the size you keep is less important than the amount.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf the limit is 25, do you need 25? Or could you be good with taking 10?\u201d he says. \u201cRestricting the number that you\u2019re actually taking home might have a bigger impact than selecting the specific size fish. Or, if you want to take your full bag limit, just don\u2019t take only 12-inch crappies. Try to spread it out where maybe you take a couple of eight-inch and a couple of seven-inchers. So spread what you\u2019re taking home across a wider range of sizes, and also reduce that total number that you take home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nWisconsin Biologist on Crappie Fisheries Management<\/h2>\n