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OT: Crappie
What is an average size crappie in your area.This one http://tinyurl.com/5bb5x is about the average I see caught around
here witha few going much larger. One of these days I'm gonna have to
figure out how to go catch a mess of these on purpose. I took this one on a casting/jigging spoon in about 8' of water. I was slow
jigging the spoon across the bottom through scattered grass. There were
striper chasing bait fish on the surface near by.
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Bob
Jul 18
2004
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| Hey Bob -- your crappie is larger that the average ones I catch here in Central
Texas. I'd say our crappie average 11 inches and a 14 incher is a lunker. My
best was not quite 16 inches and weighed 2 lbs. 4 oz. If your looking to catch these guys on a regular basis, I recommend building
brush piles in deep water (up to 30 feet if possible) then vertically jigging
1/32 oz to 1/8 oz jigs. I use weedless leadheads with Power bait 2 inch curly
tail grub bodies. Best colors for me are chartreuse and black, but I've had
good luck with virtually any color you can imagine. If if the bite is slow, I
add a berkley crappie nibble to the hook, and if the bite is really slow I add
a live minnow. When I say vertically jig, what I really mean is drop your lure to the bottom,
then slowly, slowly, slowly retreive it to the surface. If you feel any change
set the hook immediately. Often a crappie will take the lure and swim UP and
you won't feel a thing except that all of a sudden there's no weight on your
line. After you've caught a couple, you now have an idea of how deep they are
and you fish at the appropiate depth. But if the bite quits, go back to
fishing from the bottom to the surface. Good luck -- the only thing I like better than a mess of crappie, is a plate of
channel catfish. (I'm talking Texas freshwater fish.) I'd be hard pressed to
compare crappie to walleyes. Family, Friends, Fishing,
Rob Storm
http://stormsrestaurants.com |
rstorm453
Jul 18
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| That's a full 12" crappie (I'm closing its mouth in my head to get a more
accurate measurement. 12" crappies typically weigh about 18 oz (1-2) which
is way out of wack for an AVERAGE crappie. Of course it depends what you
mean by AVERAGE sized. Usually, when referring to fish, the word average
really means typical, which would equate to the size most frequently
caught. I know of a few lakes where fish in the 1 to 2 pound range are very
common -- way more common than the norm for crappies -- and the most
frequently caught size is still under a pound. Crappie are right behind bass as the species I most frequently fish for. In
most lake, the typical size is about 9 to 11 inches. I can't believe how many I've been catching on a pointer 78 jerkbait this
year. If there was such a thing as a pointer 65, it might be the best
crappie lure in existence.<G> RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing |
RichZ
Jul 18
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| 8-10 inch crappies are what I have been catching lately. Granted they have |
alwaysfishking
Jul 18
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| Since I've pretty much been focusing on bassing I haevn't caught a lot of
these guys lately, but I have to say he is average for what I have seen in
this area. Even with mouth closed he was closer to 13 than 12. The
perspective is a little wack. When I caught him I actually thought he seemed a little small, but The only
time I ever focused on crappie I got into a bunch of them trapped in a 40
acre ox bow pond that were all larger than that one with one going over 4
pounds. (only a couple ounces short of the state record.) I don't count
them as average for the area though. Most of the crappie I have seen lately were accidental catches like this one
when bass fishing, and I'ld have to say this guy is just average. Hammer
tells me he used to catch them bigger than that all the time up on Alamo
Lake, but with the drought and the extreme low water at Alamo I imagine the
fish are pretty stressed right now.
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Bob
Jul 18
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| For cleaning them, you can either simply fillet them to make boneless pieces
of meat, or some people I know claim they taste even better when they're
scaled (which crappies are so easily done, it can be done with a butter
knife or spoon), gutted and head removed. I like to keep things simple, so I'll take regular saltine crackers and
grind them fine in a mixer/blender and use that for breading. Crack a
couple of eggs in a bowl, break the yokes and beat them to an even yellow
color. Dip the fillets in the egg mix, then drop them into the ground
saltines. Make sure the fillets are even ly coated with cracker crumbs and
deep fry in peanut oil. Cook them until the fillets float in the oil,
drain, pepper to taste and eat! Dang it, now I'm going to have to catch some crappies...... |
Steve
Jul 18
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| Filet them. If there are a variety of sizes, cut them into similar sized
pieces, so the frying is more uniform. roll them in spiced cornmeal. Fry
them in olive oil with a touch of butter. It doesn't matter how many you
cook at one time, it's never more than one meal. There's never any
leftovers with crappie filets. I also have a great crappie-cake recipe. A bit more work, but a nice
change. Let me know it you're interested and I'll email it to you to let
the group get back on topic. RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing |
RichZ
Jul 19
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