PEAX Equipment

Ice fishing Crappie

pointingdogsrule

pointingdogsrule

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Joined
Aug 8, 2010
Messages
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Location
northeast Iowa
Nothing better tasting then Crappie taken out of cold water. Ice is still 16" thick on the farm ponds in northeast Iowa. Very relaxing to get out for a few hours after work. This with out a doubt my best year ever for hauling in the fish. Went out today and they started at 4 PM and lasted for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Caught 20 that yielded close to 3 lbs. of filets :) This is the first occasion that I've thrown Crappie back. I felt guilty for catching so many and threw some of the 13 inchers back in the hope for breeding stock. I know some of you catch Crappie out west.... 13 - 14 inches is a good fish for the farm ponds around here. What is a big Crappie for you guys out west?

good luck to all
the dog

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It's been so long since I've caught a crappie that I'm not a good source for telling you what's big. However, as I remember them from my younger years, 13 inchers would've been big ones, but nothing beat them for taste. Congrats on your haul.
 
Very nice! Crappie are my second favorite fish to fish for behind bluegill. That's 3# of high quality eats.
 
Those are real nice crappie. Out here I feel anything over 12" is a big crappie. We're always fishing a predominate age class and it takes them 5 years to get 10" in the reservoir I fish. Last year I filleted 7000 and maybe a handful were in that 13-14" range. They can get bigger if they live long enough. In Nov of 2004 we came in with 4 that weighed 10lbs total. Two 17.5, 16.5 and a 15. All black crappie like yours. Rare and lucky catch.
 
Brittany Chukarman said:
Those are real nice crappie. Out here I feel anything over 12" is a big crappie. We're always fishing a predominate age class and it takes them 5 years to get 10" in the reservoir I fish. Last year I filleted 7000 and maybe a handful were in that 13-14" range. They can get bigger if they live long enough. In Nov of 2004 we came in with 4 that weighed 10lbs total. Two 17.5, 16.5 and a 15. All black crappie like yours. Rare and lucky catch.
Click to expand...

thanks. Is that correct "7000"??? not "700". I use a filet knife. I have been shown an electric filet knife. What is your favorite (or best) technique. If it's electric... what type, or brand of knife do you have. Been thinking of purchasing one.
 
Last edited:
pointingdogsrule said:
thanks. Is that correct "7000"??? not "700". I use a filet knife. I have been shown an electric filet knife. What is your favorite (or best) technique. If it's electric... what type, or brand of knife do you have. Been thinking of purchasing one.
Click to expand...

7000. I guide on probably the best crappie reservoir in the NW so those fish are spread out over a few hundred anglers. Most of my fillet sessions run 2-3 hours so I use a 110vt electric. The best knife currently is the American Angler Pro. They also make the Classic that's modeled after their old model Ultra that was a good knife. If you're doing 20-40 fish at a time I think either of these knives would last a long time.
I do it different than most all who use electric. I take the fillet completely off the fish, scoop out the rib cage while the fillet is still tight to the skin then take the fillet off the skin. From there the fillet gets trimmed with a sharp fillet knife. For fine work the Havalon is hard to beat.
 
Those are fun to catch when you get into them. We did well this early ice fishing has slowed down since but I have been putting the hurt on some nice perch. One winter we only caught 12in+ but id say a crappie over 13in is a big one IMO.

Jamen
 
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