While most anglers I know keep crappie in a livewell and clean them right after their outing, you can also put them into a cooler of ice. Besides ensuring a fresh catch, keeping crappie on ice also affords you the opportunity to accumulate multiple days worth of crappie before you have to clean them.
Like any fish, special care should be taken to keep crappie as fresh as possible after the catch. Keep in mind that on hot days you won’t be able to store them in a livewell for long, so you would be better served to put them directly on ice.
How Long Can You Keep Crappie On Ice?
2 Days Or Less Is Preferable
While it’s debatable as to exactly how long you can keep crappie on ice before cleaning them, I personally think you can keep fish on ice for 2 days with no problem at all. Even 3 days is probably fine, and I have certainly gone 3 days before. With that said, I usually like to stick to no more than 2 days if at all possible.
3 Days Or More
I have heard of some folks letting fish stay on ice even longer than 3 days, but I personally wouldn’t recommend you do that. In a warm climate, storing fish for over 3 days is going to be a real challenge to keep them properly iced down and fully drained.
How To Tell If Your Fish Is Fresh?
A general rule is that fresh crappie will have clear eyes and red or bright pink gills. Along with a mild smell, you can use those 2 features to help confirm that your fish is still ok to eat. It should not have a strong fishy smell or dull faded gills. White or gray gills is a sure sign that a fish is going bad.
Putting Crappie Straight Into A Cooler
Let’s be honest, the freshest possible fish is one that is still flopping when you put the filet knife to it. The next freshest fish will be one that was immediately placed on ice right off the hook. It’s really a personal preference and a need based decision as to which method you go with. I use both ways regularly.
On a hot day when I know the crappie spawn is in full swing, I’ll sometimes load a large cooler up with ice and put it in my boat. Then I go on what I refer to as a “meat run” to load the cooler. However, when the odds aren’t so much in my favor I’ll plan to just use the livewell rather than buying a bunch of ice ahead of time.
How To Store Crappie On Ice
Keep Them Out Of Ice Water
When you keep fish on ice, it’s best that you actually place them on the ice and not in the ice water. You should try to prevent them from soaking in an ice bath for too long as this tends to soften the meat and make it mushy.
Use Crushed Ice
For the best coverage and most efficient cool down you should use crushed ice instead of frozen bottles. If you plan to keep crappie for an extended period you should also pull the plug on your cooler so the water always stays drained away from the fish. This obviously means you will go through more ice, unfortunately. So the more days you go, the more of a hassle and expense icing becomes.
Use A Yeti Or Similar Cooler
Using a pricey roto-molded cooler (i.e. Yeti) should help ease the burden and expense of keeping fish for multiple days. Regardless of how long you choose to keep your fish on ice you must check the cooler every day and be sure you keep them properly layered in ice and that they stay out of any standing water.
Advantages To Icing Crappie
Fresh Filets
It goes without saying that keeping your catch either alive or chilled down until you clean them will result in the freshest tasting fish. Live is preferable, but a short chill time can also provide you with the best possible tasting fish.
Firm Filets
Icing also results in a firmer filet. It seems like crappie that are cleaned straight from a livewell have a softer, dare I say, less desirable flesh. Contrary to what you would think, chilling crappie in ice overnight prior to cleaning them, results in a firmer and still tasty filet.
Iced Crappie Are Easier To Clean
Because crappie firm up a bit when put on ice, they are a little easier to filet. Chilling them also seems to produce a less bloody mess when cleaning. This makes a difference if you’re cleaning multiple limits in one sitting. It is quite common for people to chill crappie on ice overnight before cleaning them for this very reason.
Clean Several Days Of Crappie At Once
As mentioned, you can actually ice down at least 2 days worth of crappie, and maybe more, and then clean them all at once. I have cleaned up to 3 days of crappie at one time and not recognized any downsides to doing so. The eyes were still clear and the filets were still firm and tasty. Although I personally think 3 days is ok, I also think you should strive to keep your ice down period as close to 18 hours or less as possible.
How To Freeze Crappie
Now that you have cleaned your catch, you’ll need to preserve what you don’t intend to immediately consume.
Use Quart Sized Freezer Bags
I like to freeze my crappie filets in quart sized freezer bags. Simply put your desired amount of fish in each bag and add tap water.
Don’t Overfill The Bags
The water must cover all of the filets so that you don’t get any freezer burn. However, you’ll need to be sure not to completely fill the freezer bags with water, so you don’t get split bags when the water freezes and expands. To prevent overfill, just fill the bag completely up with water, then squeeze out about 10-20% of the maximum water from the bag. That should prevent you from getting busted bags. Also, when sealing your bags, you don’t want big air bubbles in them. So, be sure to squeeze all the air out when sealing the bags.
Conclusion
Crappie are one of the best tasting freshwater fish in America, so you’ll want to take the necessary precautions to keep your fish as fresh as possible. Everyone knows fresh fish tastes much better than ill cared for fish. Invest in lots of ice and you can keep crappie in a cooler for up to 3 days. This is quite convenient during the spawn when you’re going out several days in a row and loading the boat with slabs. Just accumulate them until you have a huge mess of fish and then clean them all at once.
Warning
This is all just based on my own opinion and personal experience. I’m certainly no expert. Care for your fish at your own risk! I have never had any stomach aches or ill effects from keeping crappie on ice for multiple days, but your mileage may vary. When in doubt, you might consider using them as fertilizer in your garden and just do better next time.
If you found this article helpful, you might like some of my other crappie fishing articles linked below.
Super Gluing Crappie Jigs
Sickle Hooks For Crappie Jigs
Best Scale For Weighing Crappie
Cheers,
Augustus Clay
