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Metro Crappies


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We need to start a forum for everybody to post their crappie catches. Anybody who's been out done any good? Ive been workin the mississippi (pool 2) with limited success, especially with the strong current, so i havn't been out for pannies yet.

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i've been out twice with nothing hittin. 1st time was at little ravine lake in cottage grove, and 2nd was powers lake in woodbury. went with a friend to powers though and he only had an hour and 15 minutes. will go back this weekend. maybe water will be a little warmer. i'll let you know. good idea with this post.

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Fished the north side of a shallow 'tonka bay for an hour tonight - some sunnies, some crappies. The light reels need new line.

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anybody ever fish big marine or bald eagle this time of year, if heard a few good things but im not sure. i only got one day to go and am tempted to give the river another try. I live on the east side so if u know any good pannie lakes over there let me know.

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I was out today wading in a north metro lake, crappies, sunnies & bluegils were very active in 8 to 10 feet of water. I set my bobber at 4 feet and had eight 10+ inch crappies & twelve 8 to 10 inch bluegils/sunnies for dinner this weekend. As well as 35 to 40 smaller ones. Great day!

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I was out in NE metro yesterday and got nothing from 4-7 and then limited out by 8. Good times, Good times. smile.gif

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Fish fry guy... a 10 inch sunnie in my opinion is very close to trophy size. Especially around the metro. Keeping them for the frying pan.... when you could have kept some smaller ones... I know of a lot of pan fisherman that are going to hate reading your post. Just a little FYI. Live and learn. mad.gif

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Dude fever, there is nothing wrong with keeping fish like that. Congrats on the big catch. u ever tried filleting a 4 inch fish? and pannies dont spawn till late may/ early june so dont worry about that.

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Im on the side of Fever on this one. A 10" gill is a trophy anywhere, keeping one to mount is one thing but a bunch to eat when he did catch others that could have been fried just as well. You say there is no harm but in reality it does hurt a fishery taking fish that size out of it wether it be during the spawn or not.

I hope I dont come off sounding to preachy, I just believe strongly in releasing trophy fish. However, I still congratulate you on your catch fish fry guy.

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I garentuee u that he didn't catch a lot of 10" gills and where is that a throphy, if we counted that as a wall hanger id have at least 20 wall hangers by now.

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True, 10 inch gills are definitely not anywhere close to being considered a trophy... 10 inch gills are pretty common... if you fish the right lakes! Sunfishes are so abundant anyways, so who really cares??? Even the DNR doesnt care.. Why do you think the daily limit for sunnies is 20? THEY ARE SO ABUNDANT and probably always will be!

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Yes, bluegills are extremely abudant and always will be. But being so abundant can be or lead to a problem, stunted populations. Larger panfish are needed to keep populations from getting stunted, a big problem in many waters.

I find it wierd that a 10" gill was stated as not considered a trophy. I would be curious to hear what you consider a trophy. I bet if you asked people when would they consider a bluegill to be trophy class 10" would come up often. Bassmaster, Im guessing that most of your 10" fish came from less pressured lakes up north and not the metro. Be happy you have caught 20 big gills, many people fish a long time and dont get them that big.

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Big Crappies in the shallows, on minnows! Some nice sunnies too, saw a ton of catfish stuck in a farmers field from the crow river. What a sight!

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It's not like Fish Fry Guy broke any regulations. I'm not encouraging anybody to keep a limit of 10" sunfish, but it is legal to do so...

I guess I must be pretty lucky because I have probably caught close to a 100 10" bluegills in the last 20 years, but not in the metro.

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A 10" bluegill is not common. Yes, you can catch them, but they don't exactly grow on trees. They are rare and make up a small percent of a total population (check out MnDNR lake data for some examples). I'm also generally suspicious of people who say they caught "several" 10" bluegills. I'm not questioning this specific case - but often people are over-exagerting.

I'll stay clear of the "to eat, or not to eat" debate. If it's legal, then more power to you. However, it is true that catch and release of larger bluegills, while keeping the smaller gills (maybe 6-7") is often a good idea IF the management strategy is for growing big bluegills.... But it's also true that managing bluegill populations is usually very difficult.

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Bubbadust, ya you are pretty lucky as are those that have caught lots of 10 inchers. I have only caught a few 10 inchers. Most of the metro fish that get that big were probably caught by others and released for someone else to catch. I have to think that a lot of trophy fish caught on pressured lakes around here are only there because someone else practiced catch n release.

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I would have to say that is a perfect example of the only thing I dont like about this site. Someone started a post to get some crappie catch reports and within a couple posts it turned into debate on what to keep and what not to keep. There is a time and place for everything and this particular post isnt the place to start debating keeping or releasing fish. Nothing wrong with pointing out something illegal but just cause someone kept a fish that you wouldnt doesnt mean we need to ruin this post. Usually when someone says they kept some 8-10 inch sunnies it means they didnt have a ruler but kept some really nice sized gills. Wouldnt suprize me at all if none of them were a true measured 10" gill, but even if they were, thats legal and those who think its bad to keep 10" gills can sure make a post about it and debate all day long. This post is "Metro Crappies" not "Is it ok to eat a 10" sunny?".

So please lets get this post back to the beginning and hear some crappie reports!! I have been out to Whaletail a couple of times these last few days and I at least caught some fish, but as usualy ALL SMALL, every single one tiny. I know there are a few nice fish in this lake but I can never catch em, I guess I go there to get away from people more that to find bigguns. The fish were very shallow, 1-2 ft. where I was fishin, caught many fish right up against shore, didnt get much action deeper, very shallow lake also. Anyone caught anything decent out of whaletail lately? I am looking forward to crappie contest on tonka comin soon, I got my spot picked and plans made, get out there early if you got a spot in mind.

Good Luck!

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Amen Chad!

I myself still itching to get the boat wet. Hopefully by next weekend.

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In response to Whaletail. I usually fish it a time or two each year. You can get the occassional 14" slab but over the last two years it is chock full of 5-7" skinny crappies. In years past I have got into some 10lb pike on Whaletail

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Yea, the reason that i started this post was to post reports, not fight with each other. I was on demontraville yesterday and only got one in about and hour of fishin, i think i coulda got more if i had kept at it and moved in shallower. Before i got the chance to do that another buddy called and we took his duck boat out to a secret lake and just hammered fish. Water temp had to be 60. There bittin, u just gotta find um.

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Couldnt find any at Harriet today, as i suspected. Water still very chilly, even in waders. Anyone else having luck on the city chain?

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Harriets always a tough one to figure out because its so deep. All the fish ive been gettin were in like a foot of water right by the bank and tucked way back into the best backwater you can find.

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I didn't see anything in the post that said they were "measured". And most guys are overly optimistic when it comes to measuring things of that size! I have my steelhead rod marked at 16" because of legal restrictions. Remember, we don't measure from the nose down the dorsal side, around the fins, then to the wet spot the tail made when it first hit our jeans! Also, big fish are a primary reason we have digital cameras.

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Caught a 10.5" crappie in one of the lagoons by Lake of the Isles last week, Tuesday I think at about 11:00 AM with a piece of Gulp earthworm. Otherwise, pretty small and pretty slow. Lots of little sunnies.

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Gander Mountain is the main sponser. Just go to GM store and ask or pick up a flyer.

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