favorite crappie lakes

If you could choose only one lake to catch crappie from what would it be? Not looking for a debate or exact spots. Just curious of lake popularity.

Kentucky lake in april. Slabs galore.

P.I. bay,I've caught some huge fish the week before trout season,the head of the bay's been good to me,but there are a few other choice spots I like,a few years back Moraine had solid fish in the 12 -14 inch range,did real good though the  ice that winter 01 - 02 but lately can't find the numbers of big ones there.Shennango got some huge white crappie (ice) but I don't fish it any more.

All the crappies that i catch on Glendale are 7 to 9 inches but there is alot of them.  Raystown is a different story I catch alot of big slabs on Raystown  Lake.  I catch at least 2 or 3 16 to 17 inch crappies that go over 2 pound out of Raystown each year.  Good luck everybody

the finger's at edinboro lake. hope we see some soon. a few more warmer day's should do it. i'm getting board with the steelhead .

trouthater, i know what you mean. i thought this would be a fun thread, but it seems like it didn't take off. there are so many good lakes it's fun to hear guys talk about them. maybe it will take off.

Egg sac,I could never understand why people can eat  tons of crappie from Shenago,it may be most polluted waters there is,I 'd rather eat fish from Lake Ont. than there,some guys will not eat eyes from Erie but will eat all the crappie they get at Shenango.

yep.
well signature aluminum(previously werner) where i was a laborer at just closed. before getting my job inside the plant i worked as a guard there.we used to cover the water treatment building. so i know first hand that crap is pumped right into little shenango!

Here is a link to the health warnings from the Pa fish commision.
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/fishpub/summary/sumconsumption.pdf


Shenango River (Mercer & Lawrence Co.) Shenango Lake dam to mouth( that means entire lake)


Muskellunge, Carp Do Not Eat PCB

1 meal/month PCB
Largemouth bass, Smallmouth bass, Walleye, Bluegill, Crappie,
Sunfish, Channel catfish,White sucker



STATEWIDE ADVISORY
Pennsylvania has issued a general, statewide health advisory for recreationally
caught sport fish. That advice is that you eat no more than one meal (one-half pound)
per week of sport fish caught in the state’s waterways. This general advice was issued
to protect against eating large amounts of fish that have not been tested or that may
contain unidentified contaminants.

There are no secific warnings for Pymatuning Lake except the standard state wide just in case rule of 52 1/2 lb meals per year.


So looking at the warings its 52 1/2 lb meals( gerneral warning) vs 12 1/2 lb( real deal) per year from Pymatuning to Shenago meaning your likely to be eating fish almost 5 times plus more contaminated from Shenago Lake then from Pymatuning. Also the fact the fish in Pymatuning are clean enough there is no warning is a pretty good indication its alot safer bet.

ORIGINAL: Big Tuna

Egg sac,I could never understand why people can eat  tons of crappie from Shenago,it may be most polluted waters there is,I 'd rather eat fish from Lake Ont. than there,some guys will not eat eyes from Erie but will eat all the crappie they get at Shenango.

Tell me abvout it..lol. Lake Erie is acualy cleaner today then it was 20 years ago. With Lake erie being such a shallow Lake compaiered to the other 4 great lakes it drains its mass every 2 years or so.Now if we could get Lake Michigan and Lake huron cleaned up more Erie would clean up even more in time.Oh well to each there own. Its sad cause Shenago is a nice Lake.

i understand peoples concerns about eating the fish but there is also the locals by any lake that have been eating fish from the lakes for 50+ years. so how bad could it really hurt you? i have never heard of a death from eating to many fish, but maybe a contributing factor to cancer?

spoon,
     i can't attest to the condition of the lake water, but the advisory is exactly what you say it is... from the mouth of the river, upstream to the dam.                               jim

Do you guys know how these fish from these waters are tested?
The entire fish is ground up and tested for contaminants.
How many of you are eating the heads and belly meat/fat?  Probably very few.
If fish are filleted they are fine.
The advisories are put into place, by testing the entire fish, because some people eat more than the fillets. 
Last I heard, they are trying to change the testing standards or process.

As an example, the EPSFA(Erie PA Sport Fishing Association) did a recent study on FILLETS of perch, walleye and steelhead from Lake Erie.  The results showed minute contaminants if any at all.

Ironhed

ORIGINAL: jolie

One great place, not mentioned for those in Northern pennsylvania is chautaqua lake, NY.  good enough quantity to make the out of season license worth it.

and I have been told by some that morraine is a great lake for crappies?  but morraine, everyone seems to have either a love OR hate relationship with that lake

 
    I do most of my spring crappie fishing on Chautauqua, mainly because it's a half hour away as opposed to 1 1/2 hours away for Pymy.  Chautauqua wins hands down for quantity, Pymy wins for quality between the two.  I haven't fished Shenango much yet, but that will change as I'm about to open a business in Hermitage, so hopefully I'll get the chance to nail some Shenango slabs.
   As far as smaller lakes go, I always loved Edinboro until the meat hogs overfished the spring run.  A 200 acre lake cannot take that kind of pressure.   Edinboro still has a healthy population of crappie, but the average size is not even close to what it was.

Latonka is borderline a private lake. Sure I could say my favorite lake is my buddies lake at his house where we get up to 18 inchers, but why? No one else can fish there. So why would I?