Crappie history!

[Rainymudrats]

Back at the turn of the century when my kids and I started fishing URL on a regular basis I think the crappie limit was 15. As I recall the limit was changed around 05. Any of you old farts remember?

[bturck]

you are correct the limitnback in the day was 15, and dropped 10 about the time we indicated. we have a couple lakes down here that are managed for panfish, with size, limit and slot enforced

[Katoman]

15 was the limit, 30 in possession....

[Rainymudrats]

I forgot about the possession part. 30 of those slabs would have been two 5 gal. buckets wow!!

[theharvester]

Daily and possesion were 15 not 30

[Xplorer]

I am pretty sure the crappie limit statewide was dropped from 15 to 10 in 2003. And there was not a "possession" limit (the only one I'm aware of is for perch 20/40).

Yes, 15 slabs in those days filled a 5 gallon pail!!

I dont remember the year (post 2003 I think), but Cookie held a contest where you paid $5 bucks, and if you brought in 5 slabs, you got a 5 card draw for a poker hand. Best hand drawn wins the pot. I think there were 50+ IBOT's that entered, and man the slabs brought in that afternoon were incredible. If my mind is not too clouded by the Capt'n that night, I do believe Jiggle won it (and spent a good part of it at Westwinds afterwards LOL )

[Bryce]

15 would not fit in a 5 gallon pail when I started. 12 was about it if you walked carefully. By the time wifey joined in, limit was 10 and we had a 7 1/2 gallon pail. Two hand lift highly recommended. Never caught a 2 pounder on the digital scale. 1.8 to 1.9 limits though. 2 pounders were "reportedly" being pulled up all around us though. Have seen some of the early mounts that are truly 2+ pounders. Takes a legitimately measured 16+ to achieve this.

Jiggle topped my hand to take the prize. Scroungie got a little walking cash in his pocket. Westwind got the rest...and then some.

[cookie129]

yes I remember that well. I had coney s at my place and jigglestick spent the whole wad at westwind with 3 fives

[Rainymudrats]

From 1999 a 16" Red Lake Crappie.

[JacobG]

Thats a cherished picture I'm sure. I have one of gabriel from 2010 when he was 3 holding a 15+ that went over 2lbs. Grand memories from a grand lake

[fishuhalik]

I caught hundreds of craps during the boom years. Too many 15"+ to count. To start we were convinced our scale was wrong cuz they had to be 2lb fish!! Got a new scale, same thing. Never did pull a legit 2lber out. I'm still kicking myself though. We had plenty of days where we'd get our limits and they were all 14.75"-15.5" fish, & we never got a stringer mount!! My best ice fishing memories were all out there. Still kicking myself...

[bearplott]

I guess we never got lucky and got on the big ones. We caught lots of crappies from about 2001-2004. Biggest we ever got, that was actually measured didn't touch 13". It won a weekend contest at the Drake Motel for the longest and got us a free one night stay. Some awesome memories from those trips!

[ozzie]

I am pretty sure you mean didn't hit 14"...majority of the crappies ran 13.25-13.75. We measured correctly (tails pinched mouth closed) hundreds possibly thousands of them and rarely did we hit over 14" or under 13" until the majority had been gone and then since we have found them under 13"

[shaky legs2]

I would agree with Ozzie. I first fished for crappies in 1998 or 99 when Doc first invited me to tag along. We fished it hard all the way up until last year. Many, many crappies but I can honestly say that even though we didn't measure a lot of them, the biggest I remember was 14 1/2". Most were 13-14" but fat. I would guess 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lbs. Beautiful fish. On another note, I did catch my biggest crappie a couple of weeks ago in a pond within walking distance of my house in Texas that went a shade over 16". Also caught several more in the 13-14" range.

[BLACKJACK]

I caught hundreds of craps during the boom years. Too many 15"+ to count. To start we were convinced our scale was wrong cuz they had to be 2lb fish!! Got a new scale, same thing. Never did pull a legit 2lber out. I'm still kicking myself though. We had plenty of days where we'd get our limits and they were all 14.75"-15.5" fish, & we never got a stringer mount!! My best ice fishing memories were all out there. Still kicking myself...

Me too!!! I kept waiting for that mythical 15 incher to put on the wall, never did find one, wish I'd have grabbed a few of the 14 inchers and did a mount.

Good memories though!!! First few times on the ice you could set down just about anywhere and catch limits!!! And the slip bobbering in the springtime on the open water, had one time up by Hudeks where I caught a nice crappie on 17 straight casts!!

When the walleyes started showing up on our lines, when they had to be thrown back, we called them 'rough fish'.