Releasing Crappie

[Chrisper4694]

First off keep as many damn legal crappie as you want, that's not what this is about haha.

I don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this but when you catch a crappie (and it doesn't even have to be from water that deep) sometimes their jaw sort of locks open and they just lay on the surface and won't move or swim or twitch a bit and then float back up.

Sometimes after a few minutes they swim away, but most of the time they just float there and die or a bird comes and kills them.

I've never looked into this and it seems pretty stupid, but anyway, this weird trick works almost every time and i've probably avoided killing upwards of 200 crappie that i released over the past few years:

when you go to release the crappie, manually close their mouth by making a little 'O' with your thumb and pointer finger and just stick their tip in there (insert penis joke). hold their tail and just drop them nose first into the water (if the water isn't too cold for your baby hands, put them all the way in and kind of push them down).

Don't ask me why but it revives them immediately almost every time. The key is to propel them into the water with their mouth closed.

I know most guys probably don't care about crappie, but that's probably because they don't know how to target the really huge ones with ultralight gear...I target pretty much every fresh and saltwater species we have in NJ and spring crappie slab hunting is still one of my favorite times hands down!

There will be a lot of crappie caught as by-catch so please consider not just killing them all for no reason, make sure they either swim away or make it to your dinner plate :D; we don't need to feed the stupid seagulls!

p.s. if you want to release the 13"+ ones, i'm with you; to me, they're worth more in the water anyway...a couple of 10-11 inchers make a great meal though :)

[Jigman13]

I tend to release two 8-9 inch crappie every morning after my morning coffee. #regular

[Hookmanski]

Huh! I don't think I've ever seen that happen when releasing crappie. I do always put them back nose first though, maybe that has something to do with it. I'd be curious to know why that happens, maybe something happens to their swim bladder when they come out of the water?

[NJSquatch]

I didn't believe it until I saw it....

I always manage to catch a few crappies (non jigman kind) when targeting walleyes deep and have had my share of floaters..this trick works

[thmyorke1]

I've never had problems with crappies like that but I'll do that for now on.

My favorite "panfish"

[Chrisper4694]

If you toss them back they appear to swim away at first and then just pop back up mouth open and float. Watch for it, i promise youll see it. If you dont look for it and keep fishing you usually wont even notice it. Ive had it happen catching them shallow too but its more often from deep.

[Chrisper4694]

I tend to release two 8-9 inch crappie every morning after my morning coffee. #regular

Youre quite the sportsman

[acabtp]

i usually just release them into the cooler :p

honestly though, i don't jig as much as i should, so i very rarely get crappies when i'm not targeting them.

[bunker dunker]

x2,never had one float up after the fillet knife gets them.

[ScowardNJ]

i was having issues with floaters a few years back while bottom jigging. I was trying to revive one by floating it back and forth like you would a bigger fish. The thing wouldn't go down and outta frustration I said F it and tuna dropped it. It swam right back down to the bottom. haha. From then on I've tuna dropped every deep water crappie, whitey, yp and they have all swam back down. Spike em like a Gronk TD celebration. haha

[dakota560]

Chris......found this online, exactly what you're talking about.


LOW crappies can be a lot of fun in the fall. After a number of years of enjoying the sport, several things I've noticed regarding the fish's ability to get back down upon release:

- A slow bring up maybe helps somewhat, not sure it is real significant.

- Down to about 22 ft, they seem to not be affected too much by the pressure change. Around 25+ ft seems to be a more critical depth as to how they are negatively affected by the pressure change. You have to fish them where they are, but if in the 22- ft range,maybe hit this depth harder(if they are in the biting mood there).

- Believe it or not, a gentle release, that is, easing the fish back into the water, seems to result in a higher percentage of deep originating fish to stay on top than occurs with a simple throwback. I think maybe the shock of hitting the water somehow facilitates their return to deep water. This is just opposite of conventional release thinking, but improves release success considerably.

- I like to squeeze down the barb on the hook. This allows in much faster unhooking, less time for the fish to be out of the water. Have noticed "0" losses due to not having a barb. I like to use a minimum of a no. 1 size hook on my jig. This maybe helps in reducing the catching of "babies" and some troublesome small perch.