20 panfish a good number for me. Not sure I've kept more than 20 though. Similar regs have been in place on a reservoir I often fish. Seldom do I catch crappie bigger than 11 inches. Perhaps the overall size of the crappies has nothing to do with the regs, but rather the habitat? I dunno. The gills are a different matter, plently of chunky 9 inchers.
 
PT2

It was saying 9 inch 20 fish limit. Pa passed it and Ohio is also but said something about not official or in effect till March when OH can make the rule change. Said thru good and bad spawns and high or low catch rate years focus on crappie fishing is all time high, has increased every year. Said crappie at pymatuning lake are more similar to mid western lakes in growth and reach size in 3 years that other Pa lakes take 4 years to reach. Haha stuff like that, seems like they're trying to stay ahead of it before there's a problem.
 
 

Have to kill some small fish to keep the population healthy.  That's why I don't flinch to kill a half dozen or so small perch each trip as bait.  I count them against our limit of 50-100 fish, which we never come close to.  
 
Arthur is swarming with small perch and bluegills, and I'm not certain that the predators bother to eat them when the lake is so full of alewives.  More specifically, I know that the sub 2" panfish get foraged on.  But that 4-6" group is the range that need to be kept thin for overall size. 

When I Pan fished with the kids and so on, I never kept more then 10-12 fish. 
Seemed after you got home unpacked and put all the gear away, a dozen nice size Pan fish was enough to clean in one sitting.
 
One trip we brought home 44 nice ones and it was just too many fish to clean after all the day's events ! Never did that again ! Those fish nuggets are good eating ! 

I agree with cleaning a lot of pan fish and can understand how monotonous something like that could get.

Why I remember once when I cleaned crappie! I thought I'd never get the second side filleted on that fish.🎃👻🎃

On a side note, docks are still in at Shenango.

I'm a master with Mr Twister. One fish per minute,fillet,skinned in the bag. As long as there big I don't have a problem doing a mess. 25 fish take about 45 minutes with cleanup.

Love my Mr. Twister for a mess of Walleye, but I still grab that big sharp Rapala knife for one or two fish.
 
 

Never used a electric knife. I have the cutco fisherman's solution and can do about a crappie a minute. May have to try electric one day just to see if it's as easy as they say but I'm hard headed and don't like to change what works for me.

Check out the dudes on Youtube cleaning catfish with those electric knives.

I now have a sure fire way to keep from catching those pesky critters. I'll buy a electric knife so I can fillet them with little difficulty and I won't catch another one.🎃

Back on topic, I think the new limit will be bad for the local businesses. It's too low. Thirty at nine would keep people coming from long distances to fish. Most won't get their limit but it's more fun trying to get to thirty than it is to twenty. Guides will even lose money with the changes being made. Baitshops will too. There's nothing wrong with this lake. Learn how to fish it and you'll take bigger fish home all year.