The Greatest Crappies Ever Caught

Whether or not you name them crappies or croppies, or freckles, specks, or papermouths, white and black crappies have enticed America’s anglers because the introduction of cane fishing poles. Their attract isn’t essentially due to the unimaginable battle they put up or the diploma of issue in catching them. It’s primarily as a result of these prolific fish are so darn tasty. Their gentle, white, flaky flesh was seemingly created for the frying pan.

Which makes one surprise: What number of crappies would have made the report books had they been measured as an alternative of filleted? 

All About Crappies

There are two subspecies of crappie native to North America. They’re members of the black bass household, and each are famous within the report books. 

The black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) is native to a lot of the jap United States, however it has been stocked so extensively in lakes and ponds that it’s now discovered virtually nationwide and in a number of Canadian provinces. Its cousin, the white crappie (Pomoxis annularis), is mostly lighter in coloration and has vertical, black stripes. In line with a distribution map revealed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, white crappies are current (however noticeably scarce) in a big swath of the Midwest from West Texas up by means of the arid western states, and throughout the Rocky Mountains into western Montana.

The 2 species will be tough to distinguish, and the one confirmed technique to inform them aside is by counting the spiny rays on their dorsal fins. Black crappies have seven or eight rays, whereas white crappie have 5 or 6. Black crappies even have irregularly organized speckles and blotches of their coloration sample. Typically, and particularly throughout spawning season, these markings can develop into very darkish (therefore the title).

Crappies will be aggressive feeders, particularly within the morning. They’ll readily hit jigs, small spinning baits, crankbaits, and, in fact, stay minnows.

Among the Greatest Crappie Ever Caught (and a Report E book Controversy)

Any crappie that pushes the 3- to 4-pound mark is within the trophy class. Fish over 5 kilos are humongous specimens, as anybody who’s joyfully pulled in a slab 2-pounder will attest to. 

A verify of state fishing data exhibits 5 states recognizing crappie that weighed 5 kilos or extra. The South Carolina data for white and black crappie are over that benchmark, and each of these fish had been caught greater than 50 years in the past. In the meantime, greater than 30 states record crappie data exceeding 4 kilos.

There’s nonetheless a little bit of controversy in terms of the largest crappie ever caught, nevertheless. The Worldwide Sport Fish Affiliation, which is the de facto record-keeping group for fish caught with a rod-and-reel, lists the all-tackle world report as a black crappie weighing 5 kilos, 7 ounces. The fish was caught from a pond in Tennessee in 2018.

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However some nonetheless assume the true world report belongs to a 12- or 13-year previous Louisiana woman named Lettie Robinson, who reportedly caught a 6-pound black crappie from the Westwego Canal in 1969. Though there may be treasured little documentation and no recognized pictures of the catch, Louis Bignami writes about it in his 1991 guide, Tales Behind Report Fish. (In line with Bignami, Robinson caught the 6-pounder utilizing an previous cane pole and a few worms she’d dug herself.) To today, Robinson’s 6-pound crappie is ranked No.1 by the Nationwide Freshwater Fishing Corridor of Fame in Wisconsin, however as a result of it’s not accepted by the IGFA, a shadow of doubt hangs over it.    

A listing of huge crappies doesn’t finish with the all-tackle world report, both. The IGFA additionally acknowledges size data for crappie that had been caught, documented, and launched. It used to take care of a listing of line- and tippet-class data for the 2 species as nicely, however IGFA angler recognition supervisor Zack Bellapigna tells Out of doors Life that its report guide underwent a significant overhaul in 2017, when the group applied a minimal weight requirement for these data.

“This [change] required the fish to weigh half of the road class with a purpose to qualify,” Bellapigna explains. “With that being the case, the one data out there presently are the all-tackle and size data for each species.” 

Here’s a nearer take a look at these IGFA-verified crappie data.

All-Deal with Black Crappie Report: 5 kilos, 7 ounces

Angler Lionel “Jam” Ferguson caught the present all-tackle world report black crappie (and the reigning largest crappie within the IGFA report guide) on Might 15, 2018. He was fishing in Tennessee’s Richeison Pond, which is privately owned. The fish measured 19.25 inches lengthy and weighed 5 kilos, 7 ounces. It was a chunky fish with a 17.75-inch girth.

Ferguson was fishing that night with a Shakespeare rod matched with a Pflueger reel spooled with 6-pound Zebco line. His black crappie, caught with a jig, eclipsed a world report that had stood for a dozen years.

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They develop them large within the Volunteer State. The Tennessee state report for white crappie is simply two ounces in need of the all-tackle world report. Angler Invoice Allen caught that 5-pound, 1-ounce whopper from one other personal pond in 1969. 

All-Deal with White Crappie Report: 5 kilos, 3 ounces

Fred Brilliant’s all-tackle white crappie report has held up for 67 years, which is longer than another report on this record. Brilliant caught the 5-pound, 3-ounce fish in Mississippi’s Enid Dam on July 31, 1957. There aren’t any recognized pictures of the fish. The fish was reportedly 21 inches lengthy with a 19-inch girth.

In line with the IGFA, Brilliant was utilizing a Denison-Johnson reel spooled with Ashaway line. There isn’t a point out of the kind of lure or bait he used.

All-Deal with Size Report, Black Crappie: 16.14 inches

Angler Derek Merricks beat his personal crappie report earlier this 12 months. He caught the 16.14-inch-long black crappie in Virginia’s Little Creek Reservoir on Feb. 10. His earlier report, a 14.96-inch fish caught in December 2023, got here from the identical reservoir.

Merricks was wielding a St. Croix Premier rod matched with a Shimano Stradic 1000 spinning reel and 6-pound Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon line. He caught each report fish utilizing stay minnows.

All-Deal with Size Report, White Crappie: 15.35 inches

Doug Borries caught his 15.35-inch white crappie on Oct. 22, 2022. He was fishing Grenada Lake, which has an extended repute as a trophy crappie vacation spot. Borries was fishing with a B’n’M rod and an Okuma reel spooled with 10-pound Stren line. He was casting a hand-tied jig.

Junior Size Report, Black Crappie: 13.39 inches

Younger Kate Kwak was loaded for large sport when she hooked into her report black crappie, a 13.39-incher she caught in California’s Clear Lake on June 14, 2023. Her G Loomis PR 844S rod was geared up with a Shimano Stradic 3000 reel spooled with 50-pound PowerPro line. The fish ate a minnow.

Fly-Fishing Size Report, Black Crappie: 14.57 inches

Bob Gaines was fly fishing Lake Perris in California on July 26, 2019, when a record-breaking black crappie inhaled his wooly bugger. There aren’t any recognized pictures of the fish, which reportedly measured 14.57 inches lengthy. Gaines was fishing a Sage rod paired with an Orvis reel and fly line.

Fly-Fishing Size Report, White Crappie: 15.35 inches

Michael T. Boleware holds the pending fly-caught world report with a white crappie he caught earlier this 12 months on Mississippi’s Grenada Lake. That fish, caught on March 20, measured 15.35 inches. Boleware was utilizing a Pflueger rod with a Maxim Catch reel and 8-pound line. The fish hit a sculpin imitation. 

*This report is pending. If accepted by the IGFA, Boleware will prime his personal current report, a 14.96-inch crappie he caught from Ross Barnett Reservoir on April 19, 2023.

Junior Size Report, White Crappie: tie

The present junior size report for white crappie is listed as a tie within the IGFA report guide. In line with the group’s guidelines, a fish must be at the least 2 centimeters longer than an current report to beat it.

Jasmine Hammontree got here near doing this on Feb. 16 of this 12 months, when she landed a 12.99-inch white crappie from Vernon Lake, a 4,200-acre reservoir in Anacoco, Louisiana. She was utilizing a colourful Sougayilang rod and a South Bend 110 reel, with a Strike King Rocket Shad lure tied on the enterprise finish. 

However Hammontree’s fish wasn’t fairly large enough to unseat the 12.6-inch white crappie that James Callahan Barton caught in Mississippi on June 4, 2023. Barton was fishing on Sardis Lake. He used a B’n’M West Level rod with a Lew’s Xfinity dimension 30 spinning reel and 15-pound Spiderwire. The fish ate a chartreuse-and-green Bandit 300 crankbait.

FAQs

Closing Ideas on the Greatest Crappies Ever Caught

As enjoyable as it’s to catch crappie, a variety of anglers wish to eat them much more. And since so many fish have ended up on the cleansing desk over time, it’s laborious to say with one hundred pc certainty what the largest crappie ever caught was. Data are nonetheless being damaged, although, and with anglers utilizing new know-how like Ahead Going through Sonar to seek out greater fish, this pattern will probably proceed.