There is a small lake close to where I live also and it too is chocked full of 5 and 6 inch crappie... Carnico lake is about 14 miles from my house and I get to fish it once or twice a week, 9 inch crappie are tough to come by but on occasion I will catch 5 or 6, now and then I have caught 12 inch plus crappie there... The plus side is it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to spend a few hours on the lake relaxing and there is something to be said about catching 100 plus numbers quite often as I am fortunate enough to do... If it is fairly close to you, invest some time into learning the lake's ins and outs with a depth finder and take what it gives you when you get to fish it, There isn't many bad days on the water and if it gives you small fish just enjoy the day.

Don't know if you eat crappie or not but a 6 inch fish taste the same as a bigger one and they even clean the same way, you just have a smaller piece of fish after you fillet it, the down side is you have to clean more fish to have the same amount, when you take them out of the deep fry they make as good a looking plate of fish as the 14 inch crappie we would rather catch.