Put these guys in exactly one year ago. They were 4" when they went in.
Caught the first of the year tonight.
Forgive the horrible picture and grip. Was trying to get it back to the water quick.

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Yep, probably should have combed yer hair..but the cat looks great!

I stock CC every year as a put and take species. I would have put that guy in the hot grease. I try to harvest them before they reach 3 pounds. That guy looks 1.5+ which is perfect IMHO. Great job!

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I agree. It was late and I was lazy. I didn't want to clean one fish and no way was I going to put it in my holding cage to destroy.
I'll have my pops out soon and we can start some fish fry culling.

Ryan, I hope you can catch it again. I have had a very difficult time catching the same CC twice.....

thats why i wana stock my pond with hybrid cc/bc they strike lures and can keep catching throwing back with channels youll never catch them twice tbh i never have any luck fishing small ponds it seems they never bite a hook cause they all been caught before so hybrids are the way to go

Nice cat. I stocked CC April last year. Last weekend decided I was ready for a fish fry. Caught the first CC 2.5 lbs, the second one got away right at the dock but was just as big. Then caught a few TP and BG, with all the commotion the CC disappeared. I tried tossing in some pellets normally the CC come right up to feed. But this time nothing. It's like they knew what was going on and wanted no part of it. So I cleaned what I had and about an hour later tossed in a line with some CC remains and sure enough got another 2.5 pounder. Lesson learned. If you want to harvest CC be prepared to take what you catch when you catch it!
By the way, they were delicious!

Nice first year growth.

We have a 4' square holding pen we throw them in till we are ready to clean a batch. But CC do not hold very well if there is more than one. We can leave one in for a week with no problems. As soon as we put two or more they start tearing each other up. I just caught a 2-3# one last night and put it in with another one that has been in the pen for several days. We will clean them tomorrow though.

Multiple CC in a holding pen do not seem to play well. I've kept 40 6-8" BG in the same pen for a week no problem. Lost some CC once when I left 4 in the pen for a week.

I caught one 18" and one 19" CC this afternoon for tonight's supper. I stocked them just about one year ago at about 6".

I also caught one of my brooder albino CC estimated at 5 pounds and about 24". It was about 18" when stocked last winter. I didn't lift it out of the water, but removed the #10 hook from the edge of its upper lip and let it go. Interestingly, on my ultralight crappie rod, the big albino did not put up as much total fight as the 18" or 19" did. After a couple very hard initial runs, the albino surfaced about 35 feet out and just pretty much came in. It didn't struggle as I removed the hook, but swam off fine upon release. Do albinos have less stamina than the regular CC?