Crappie Fillets -Explanation
General Topic
Recently, I got a pm regarding the number of vacuum bags of fillets I had in the freezer. Warning I might be over the possession limit. Let me clarify. Here, my possession limit is 60 fish X two of us equals 120 FISH. That will produce 240 sides. The sides, the way I cut them, will produce, usually, three pieces. Nine pieces make a meal. Three times 240=720, or about 700 pieces. Divide that by nine and you can see how many vacuum bags I can have in my possession. I am well under the limit.
The number of bags is irrelevant to possesion limit. Whoever sent the PM is overthinking things...
Crappie and bream- two of the best eating fresh water fish in the South !!
Keep jerking !!
You sir Look to be living right, all around Always enjoy your posts
Sounds like a crappie thing to accuse someone of! Enjoy your spring John!
That little fellow may not make slot @ Enid hehe....
Yep great eating. I only put whole fillet sides with patch of skin on in my freezer. It can all come down to the COs interpretation. If he can't decipher how many you got relatively easy. He could get out the pen and pad.
Full moon in May, comes on the 10th. I shall be breaming in AL May 9-10-11. No limit but I don't keep anything that isn't a "titty" bream. This is after a two hour foray. From this lake, (private one), we have caught many over 1-pound.
Norseman, he is more than welcome to do anything he wants. I am 100% legal and will win in court easy. The "Man" in this county would probably make me fry up a bunch and have lunch. Just do the math: 60X2=120X2-240X3=720. He can count all the pieces, then he has to subtract the bass fillets that may be mixed in and then, decided how many sides they amount and then how many fish that equals. Makes me laugh to even think about it. Say I had 30, vacuum bags with 10 pieces in each. That is still 420 pieces below my possession limit. I am way below being over the possession limit. But I am getting hungry, just thinking about it.
Sounds like you may be over the limit. Better hid all of them in my freezer. :-)
Just stating what we have to go through in Minny. Yeah, each State is different In Mn they would nail one to the wall. Enjoy.
Heads up! You can only take one day's catch outa state when you head back from AL. They be bustin' bream hoardin' furriners.
edit: that may not apply for private pond fish
I'm sure he was just trying to be helpful vs. a jerk. It's always good to clarify though just for folks who were wondering.
Now he could be a jerk but I recently saw a guy lifting an oversize sturgeon out of the water for a pic he posted and most were happy for him but a few guys told him he should remove pic because it's illegal to remove an oversize out of the water.
The guy got all mad at him and told him to calm down. The guys were right - if F&G sees that pic a ticket will be coming.
I love eating panfish!!! They're a little work but man they are so good.
You know it's the off-season when people are actually replying to a thread about crappie fishing.......................
Oh, wait, I just did too. /:^(
5 months to go!!
In KY for Easter this weekend. Grandkids loved it.
Bowriter,biologist recommending I remove 500 coppernose from my hole this year.The work will begin like you said on first full moon.Bream had their 2nd birthday in Feb some have been over a pound.They are some fighting little footballs for sure.
Buz you would be correct re taking one days limit out of state...except these are caught in a private lake, designated as a "club" no limit, no license no state regs at all.
Greatest thing that ever happened to bream is the coppernose. I extimate we take between 1,000 and 1,500 out a year to try and keep the balance. This year, we are also going to need to take about 100-bass out as well. We "cull" everything between 12-14 inches. They eat quite well. Hard work but somebody has to do it. In a way, I am glad the other two lakes were sold. I would have had to either guide or fish eight days a week. We were averaging 30-bass a session-4-hours-averaging over six pounds. They were a Tiger/Gorilla cross and pulled like a freight train. I think the half-million shad we jump started them with,helped. This is a sample from year, three.
yum, love me some crappie fillets :)
Bowriter you need to stop working so hard! Hope when I am as young as you I can work like you . Haha.
I still have things getting in my way Mon-Fri but my new job has me on west coast after 20 on east coast. Been having fun chasing these guys.
I do not know the specific language or tone of the PM; however, the fact that it was a PM suggests it was more a friendly "heads up" than to crucify you.
I recall years ago reading a story on Bowsite regarding an elk hunt in a particular state. At that time legal shooting hours in said state was until sunset (NOT 30 min after, which is generally typical). The author wrote something to the effect "the sun had just gone down and the magic time was at hand." Then went on to kill a bull. I don't know any details whatsoever, but PMed the guy and nudged him as to why his wording was questionable. He went on to clarify that he was on the shaded side of the valley but the sun had not set yet. I simply wanted to let him know that what he had written could be interpreted in a way that he might not prefer.
Yes, the guy was obviously being friendly since he wrote it in a PM. Im guessing Bowriter might be wondering if anyone ELSE is having the same thoughts, thus the public clarification.
Hey wait a minoozle- It was a friendly pm if slightly misinformed. I did not mean imply otherwise. I just thought I'd better clarify before someone else gets the wrong idea. As a professional outdoor writer, I bend over backwards to comply with ALL game laws, even the ones I think are stupid. But as such, I have to make sure no one is misled. I appreciate the heads up from the guy. He was just wrong in his assumption. I "THINK" he assumed a far larger number of crappie than was true. Maybe he confused fillets with an entire side? Don't know but it was completely friendly.
In any case John, if you have too many, just eat 'em !
I did a guided ice fishing walleye/perch trip on Devil's Lake, ND a couple winters ago with McQuoid Outdoors (HIGHLY recommend the outfitter if you care). We hooked into quite a few northern too. The way I was taught to filet northern was to take the top of the back first and then take off the sides=3 fillets. The guide fillets all fish and I asked him about his method which was obviously different than mine and resulted in 2 fillets. His response was that when transporting fish, COs operate under the 2 fillets=1 fish. My method would put me over the possession limit according to their law. So I assume it varies by state. Best of luck and enjoy them!
Great looking fish. I put in Tiger Bass and have caught one 4# they will be 2 in June. Fertilizing and feeding the bream have been a huge increase in my bass food chain... good luck with yours
I love posts like these because it starts out about one thing but you learn a lot more about other things like in NEIA post.
Plus you learn we are a lot more alike than not.
Here in MN, our crappie limits are a lot smaller than yours (and so are our crappies based on cutting them into 1/3rds). I grew up on a lake in northern MN and I bet there wasn't one freezer that wasn't over the possession limit in late fall. That and venison were our protein. Of course, ice fishing wasn't nearly so easy back then so you had to stock up during the summer.
"The daily bag limit is defined as the maximum number or pounds of fish, shellfish, or seaweed of a given species and size that a person may legally keep in a single day. The related possession limit is the number of daily limits allowed to be kept in the field or in transit." There is no limit on what you may keep in your freezer except for the one imposed by freezer space.
I have a great casserole recipie for crappie fillets.
Sorry loprofile, not in this state.
Genesis- The main thing we worked with was water quality-keeping the proper Ph. Once we had stocked "target" fish and bait fish, (500,000 threadfin), we concentrated on weed control and water balance. Growth rate was phenominal. We worked with an outfit out of Montgomery, AL and they were super. In the two, big lakes 50-60 acres, we had 4-6 pound bass in the third year. In the old lake, the current lake record for bass is 13-6 and for bream 2-8. I will be fishing the old lake, May 9-10-11 and may fillet as many as 100 bream and 50 bass. The bass will be right around 1-pound.
NOTE; This is a private club, no state laws apply. No limit, no license.
This picture is of a bass caught from the bank on the old lake, at the lodge.
Joey,
butter a deep casserole, place peeled, thick raw potato slices to cover, salt and pepper
add thick slices of peeled Vidalia onion,
salt and pepper
add a layer of crappie fillets
salt and pepper
repeat until 3 layers thick, top with crumbled crisp bacon,
add spicy V-8 juice to within an inch of covering the top layer. bake covered in preheated 350 degree F oven 1 hour
remove cover and bake 15 minutes more
serve as a stew with crusty wheat bread or cornbread
Bow writer, well, I guess I need to hire you for a guided trip - that pond, and a few of my favorite fly rod's would be to much fun! That one blue gill - wholly smokes! it was HUGE! (the one with the chartreuse road runner in the mouth)
Lots of fun to be had there for sure!
Fuzzy, no cheese? :-) I'm in Alabama.....we don't make casserole without cheese! LOL
Sounds good, though. I'll have to try that sometime. Potluck/covered dish meal!
that is a huge hybrid Panfish, per pound the hardest fighting fish ever. Nothing better on ultra light tackle. Like you've hooked into a marlin
Here in Mn, possession is possession. if (big IF) a CO were to search your freezer, you need to be able to prove species and number of each species. That number must not exceed possession limits by those in that house that are licensed.
Just an FYI
no cheese I that one Joey. it's a great covered dish dish. :)
ZX-man, in MN how many cans of salmon are you allowed? :)
Don't believe Salmon are a game fish in Minnesota.
Y'all musta used American Sportfish,I drive by it a lot going to see my son in College. Yeah biologist told me we will be at 5# in year three and I thought he was full of it.My pond is just 14 ac but will keep me plenty busy removing fish .Our ponds are very acidic in north miss so we had to add 40 tons of lime to get the alkalinity high enough To fertilize
Well yeah, that's a lot of fish......but didja ever get the DOUBLE Sunfish Slam in one year???? heheheh....
I'd eat a few bags worth just to make sure...... =D
They will take my fish when they pry my cold dead hands from the freezer door
I always interpreted bag limit to be what you had between the field and home. It's called a "bag limit," not a "freezer limit."
I'd say go catch more. Some nice fish you got. Fresh fried crappie? Give me some lemon, malt vinegar, and Tabasco or Frank's. Sign me up for a pound-and-a-half. Hold the sides.
There is creel limit and there is possession limit. Creel limit is the number you can keep in one day. Possession limit is the number you can have in your possession. Here in TN, concerning crappie, we have a 30-fish per day creel limit with a 10"-size limit. Sp, each fisherman can keep, 30, 10-inch fish. Two men equal 60. The possession limit is double that. However, this being the South, I doubt seriously any GW would try to make a case in court regarding what was in the freezer. It would be almost impossible to prove where the fish were caught. It is pretty much a moot point, here. I do know, bringing back fish from AL, regardless of the number, is perfectly legal. I have no idea what would or would be done in other states. I don't live in another state...mine does, however, some times become altered. As I have said, my freezer(s) is open to inspection any time. And, BTW-the eagle in one of them is not mine. :)
Pig Doc, That's how it works in Utah too. I only know of one case where it was enforced and it was a couple who were catching a limit at stocked ponds, multiple times per day, dropping them off at their house and then returning for another limit. If I recall correctly, they had hundreds of fish when they were caught. I don't think this issue even applies to 99% of sportsman, because they don't keep more than they need to in general, but there are "those guys". If you can catch that many and you consume them, I say good for you, have at it.
I know of one situation in CO where some guys were reported by some other fishermen who watched them taking a bunch of Lakers through the ice for several days straight, were observed later by the warden, so they got a warrant to search their freezers.
One guy had over 200 trout for his smoker. The possession limit is 8. Multiple big fines.
I issue citations for $150 per fisherman plus $25 per fish over the limit and have dropped some big ones on violator fish hogs who do what ben h describes. People have no idea what one can see through a big spotting scope while sitting on a hill sipping coffee..
Results of a nice morning on the warmwater lake I manage. Those boards are 2x6. Yum!
Those perch are great eating. Interesting combination of pescadalia.
I never have to worry about this issue, because like Patrick F McManus, "my limit is two" :)
Bowriter, one evening law summer I took OTCWill out on my lake and we caught 7 of the 8 different gamefish species, including a muskie.
Perch fillets are my fave!
On our lakes here, a Grand Slam is a smallmouth, large mouth, KY or Spotted bass, crappie, drum and a gar. Sometimes, we substitute striper and hybrid for the drum and gar. Generally speaking, we have no northerns or many muskie in the lakes right close. We do have walleye, sauger and saugeye and black perch and of course, bream and catfish.
People think of CO as a "trout state". But we have some great warm water fishing too. My neighborhood lake has smallies up to 6lbs, largemouth bigger than that, channel cats over 30, and the average crappie is 13", besides walleyes, perch, etc...
I too enjoy a pile of perch.
Upstate NY.
I have caught some great smallies in CO. For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the lake. I have caught many largemouth in WY. We have a tremendous trout fishery here but they taste like Purina. I have five browns and oen rainbow over 8# to my credit and hundreds 2-3. We seldom keep them. My friend caught this 3-6 a couple weeks ago while we were crappie fishing. Never know where they are going to show up.
