Whether or not you name them crappies or croppies, or freckles, specks, or papermouths, white and black crappies have enticed America’s anglers for the reason that 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 marvel: What number of crappies would have made the file 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 file books.
Photograph by Ken Perrotte
The black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) is native to a lot of the japanese United States, but it surely has been stocked so extensively in lakes and ponds that it’s now discovered virtually nationwide and in a couple of Canadian provinces. Its cousin, the white crappie (Pomoxis annularis), is usually lighter in colour and has vertical, black stripes. In response to 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 the arid western states, and throughout the Rocky Mountains into western Montana.
The 2 species could be troublesome 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 – 6. Black crappies even have irregularly organized speckles and blotches of their colour sample. Generally, and particularly throughout spawning season, these markings can grow to be very darkish (therefore the title).
Crappies could be aggressive feeders, particularly within the morning. They’ll readily hit jigs, small spinning baits, crankbaits, and, after all, stay minnows.
A few of the Largest Crappie Ever Caught (and a Document 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.
Photograph by Ken Perrotte
A test 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 have been caught greater than 50 years in the past. In the meantime, greater than 30 states listing crappie data exceeding 4 kilos.
There’s nonetheless a little bit of controversy relating to the largest crappie ever caught, nevertheless. The Worldwide Recreation Fish Affiliation, which is the de facto record-keeping group for fish caught with a rod-and-reel, lists the all-tackle world file as a black crappie weighing 5 kilos, 7 ounces. The fish was caught from a pond in Tennessee in 2018.
Learn Subsequent: It’s OK to Hold Trophy Crappie
However some nonetheless suppose the true world file belongs to a 12- or 13-year outdated Louisiana lady named Lettie Robinson, who reportedly caught a 6-pound black crappie from the Westwego Canal in 1969. Though there’s treasured little documentation and no recognized images of the catch, Louis Bignami writes about it in his 1991 e book, Tales Behind Document Fish. (In response to Bignami, Robinson caught the 6-pounder utilizing an outdated cane pole and a few worms she’d dug herself.) To this present day, 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.
Photograph by Ken Perrotte
A listing of massive crappies doesn’t finish with the all-tackle world file, both. The IGFA additionally acknowledges size data for crappie that have been caught, documented, and launched. It used to keep up a listing of line- and tippet-class data for the 2 species as nicely, however IGFA angler recognition supervisor Zack Bellapigna tells Outside Life that its file e book 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 to be able to qualify,” Bellapigna explains. “With that being the case, the one data accessible at the moment are the all-tackle and size data for each species.”
Here’s a nearer take a look at these IGFA-verified crappie data.
All-Sort out Black Crappie Document: 5 kilos, 7 ounces
Photograph courtesy IGFA
Angler Lionel “Jam” Ferguson caught the present all-tackle world file black crappie (and the reigning largest crappie within the IGFA file e book) 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 file that had stood for a dozen years.
Learn Subsequent: The 20 Finest Crappie Lures of 2024, Examined and Reviewed
They develop them huge within the Volunteer State. The Tennessee state file for white crappie is simply two ounces wanting the all-tackle world file. Angler Invoice Allen caught that 5-pound, 1-ounce whopper from one other personal pond in 1969.
All-Sort out White Crappie Document: 5 kilos, 3 ounces
Fred Vibrant’s all-tackle white crappie file has held up for 67 years, which is longer than every other file on this listing. Vibrant caught the 5-pound, 3-ounce fish in Mississippi’s Enid Dam on July 31, 1957. There are not any recognized images of the fish. The fish was reportedly 21 inches lengthy with a 19-inch girth.
In response to the IGFA, Vibrant was utilizing a Denison-Johnson reel spooled with Ashaway line. There isn’t any point out of the kind of lure or bait he used.
All-Sort out Size Document, Black Crappie: 16.14 inches
Photograph courtesy IGFA
Angler Derek Merricks beat his personal crappie file earlier this yr. He caught the 16.14-inch-long black crappie in Virginia’s Little Creek Reservoir on Feb. 10. His earlier file, 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 file fish utilizing stay minnows.
All-Sort out Size Document, White Crappie: 15.35 inches
Photograph courtesy IGFA
Doug Borries caught his 15.35-inch white crappie on Oct. 22, 2022. He was fishing Grenada Lake, which has a protracted fame 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 Document, Black Crappie: 13.39 inches
Photograph courtesy IGFA
Younger Kate Kwak was loaded for large sport when she hooked into her file black crappie, a 13.39-incher she caught in California’s Clear Lake on June 14, 2023. Her G Loomis PR 844S rod was outfitted with a Shimano Stradic 3000 reel spooled with 50-pound PowerPro line. The fish ate a minnow.
Fly-Fishing Size Document, 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 are not any recognized images 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 Document, White Crappie: 15.35 inches
Photograph courtesy IGFA
Michael T. Boleware holds the pending fly-caught world file with a white crappie he caught earlier this yr 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 file is pending. If permitted by the IGFA, Boleware will prime his personal current file, a 14.96-inch crappie he caught from Ross Barnett Reservoir on April 19, 2023.
Junior Size Document, White Crappie: tie
The present junior size file for white crappie is listed as a tie within the IGFA file e book. In response to the group’s guidelines, a fish must be a minimum of 2 centimeters longer than an current file to beat it.
Images courtesy IGFA
Jasmine Hammontree got here near doing this on Feb. 16 of this yr, 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 sufficiently big 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
That reply will depend on who you ask. Most would level to the 5-pound, 7-ounce black crappie that was caught in Tennessee in 2018, and which is ranked No. 1 within the IGFA’s e book of fishing world data. Others would say that file belongs to a younger Louisiana lady who reportedly caught a 6-pounder again in 1969. Though there is no such thing as a photographic proof of the catch, it’s nonetheless ranked No. 1 by the Nationwide Freshwater Fishing Corridor of Fame.
Huge is a relative time period, and crappies are a few of the smallest members of the black bass household, averaging round 1-1.5 kilos. Any crappie over 2 kilos is one thing to brag about in most panfishing circles. Fish pushing 4-5 pound mark are the true “slabs” however these fish are fairly uncommon in most elements of the nation.
Like many different heat water species, crappies sometimes develop larger in southern states like Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas. Lakes within the Midwest are additionally recognized to kick out some huge crappies. A number of of essentially the most well-known trophy crappie lakes within the nation are: Grenada Lake in Mississippi, Lake Fork in Texas, and Alabama’s Weiss Lake.
Last Ideas on the Largest Crappies Ever Caught
Photograph by Ken Perrotte
As enjoyable as it’s to catch crappie, loads of anglers prefer to eat them much more. And since so many fish have ended up on the cleansing desk through the years, it’s arduous to say with one hundred pc certainty what the largest crappie ever caught was. Information are nonetheless being damaged, although, and with anglers utilizing new know-how like Ahead Going through Sonar to seek out larger fish, this development will possible proceed.
