Quinte Fishing

i am curious as to how one might figure the age or minimum length of a fish to bring home to eat...for instance the other day i caught 3 - 10-11" walleye and i put them back, but i would keep a crappie that got this big...i felt there must be a way for me to know what is ideal to keep and what is better off going back...and im aware of slot limits so i bear those in mind...i haven't caught anything remotely close to that kind of sizing...shoreline fisherman...it has its limits

I am not sure about size-age for crappy, but bet there are some rough guidelines. There has been a chart made on B of Q walleye that is fairly decent.

You might want to note that different areas have varying rates of growth as per the fertility of the body of water, etc. Depending on the water and time of year I have seen brook trout out of seemingly picture perfect surroundings....taste awful, and rainbows out of rougher looking places taste great. It takes time to begin to understand what makes ideal eating size and conditions....yum yum. Both are important.

Another note is that the larger fish (eg lake trout, walleye) tend to have higher concentrations of toxins etc.
Tight Lines
Don Stokes