Crappie – Page 2 – Syndication Server

‘Giant crappie’ could break a 46-year-old record

An angler who thought he found a school of bass on his fish finder got the surprise of his life when he hooked a fish, but it wasn’t a bass.

A fisherman who thought he had found a school of bass on his fish finder got the surprise of his life when he hooked one of the fish that wound up being a record-size crappie.

David Burruss of Clear Lake Outdoors in Lakeport, Calif., made the catch Wednesday while fishing at Clear Lake, known as a premier bass lake. But his black crappie took the spotlight on this day as it weighed 4.33 pounds (or 4 pounds, 5.3 ounces), which would break a 46-year-old California record if confirmed, as reported by the Lake County Record-Bee and Field & Stream.

Dave Burruss with his record-size crappie. Photo courtesy of Terry Knight

The current record is 4 pounds, 1 ounce caught by Wilma Honey at New Hogan Lake on March 29, 1975.

“I thought I had hooked a nice bass until I got it up to the boat and saw that it was a giant crappie,” Burruss told the Record-Bee.

Burruss used a 4-inch swimbait with an underspin to catch the crappie. Photo courtesy of Terry Knight

He took the fish to Lakeside County Park and called outdoors writer Terry Knight to meet him.

“When I first saw the fish, I was dumbfounded,” the 85-year-old Knight wrote. “I have seen a lot of big crappie in my lifetime but nothing like this one.”

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They weighed the fish on two scales and both gave the digitized weight of 4.33 pounds. A certified scale at a local supermarket confirmed the 4.33-pound weight, which should solidify it as a record. The crappie measured 17.71 inches.

For comparison, the all-tackle world record for a black crappie is 5 pounds, 7 ounces caught in May 2018 at Richeiseon Pond in Tennessee.

Burruss took his fish to the Department of Fish and Wildlife so a biologist could identify the fish and take scale samples, and start the record certification process.

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“It had been a slow day bass fishing, but I saw a few bigger fish on the Garmin Livescope that I thought were maybe bass,” Burruss told Field & Stream. “But these fish were suspended 6 to 10 feet deep in 25 feet of water. They ended up being huge crappies. There were two other crappies with this fish the same size that I couldn’t get to bite.”

If confirmed, Clear Lake would become the owner of state records for both black crappie and white crappie. The white crappie state record of 4 pounds, 8 ounces was caught in 1971.

Burruss plans to have the fish mounted and put it on display in his shop.

Angler lands near-record crappie hours after COVID-19 vaccination

A Pennsylvania angler caught a near-record crappie Friday just hours after receiving his first COVID-19 vaccination shot.

So for Dan Wielobob, it was a wonderful day in at least two respects.

The monstrous white crappie, caught through the ice at Lake Wilhelm, measured 20 inches and weighed 4.02 pounds, falling less than 3 ounces shy of the state record.

Wielobob told Darl Black of the Erie Times-News that the fish was so large as it swam past the hole that he thought he had hooked a walleye.

Then, when the fish began to swim upward with its mouth open, Wielobob thought it was a largemouth bass, so he “lipped it,” using his thumb and forefinger, and flopped it onto the ice.

“Not something I would have done if it were a walleye,” he told Black.

Wielobob said the crappie was the largest he has caught in more than 60 years of fishing.

For the sake of comparison, the all-tackle world record stands at 5 pounds, 3 ounces. That mark, set in Mississippi, was established in 1957 and might never be broken.

Wielobob caught the giant crappie – and 19 smaller crappies – using two-pound-test line and a small tungsten jig.

Earlier on Friday, he and his wife had driven to a clinic in Cortland, Ohio, to receive their first vaccination shots.

–Images courtesy of Darl Black / Erie Times News

Angler targeting crappie smashes 25-year-old shad record

A Georgia angler who went fishing for crappie recently on the Ogeechee River ended up breaking a 25-year-old state record for hickory shad.

Christian Blake Jones of Swaisboro landed the 2-pound, 3-ounce hickory shad to erase a record (1 pound, 15 ounces) set in 1995.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources announced the record Tuesday via Facebook and in a news release, without quoting the angler.

“A day of fishing is good, but you know what makes it even better? A day you catch a new state record!” the GDNR’ Wildlife Resources Division exclaimed in the news release.

While 2 pounds, 3 ounces might not seem impressive, it’s an absolute whopper by hickory shad standards, and falls just 11 ounces shy of the all-tackle world record (2 pounds, 14 ounces) set in Florida in 2008.

https://www.facebook.com/WildlifeResourcesDivisionGADNR/posts/10157839263233388

Although hickory shad are not considered a glamour species, they put up a mighty struggle on light-tackle fishing gear.

States the International Game Fish Assn.: “Don’t let the species name fool you; there is nothing mediocre about the sporting qualities of this small herring. Hickory shad, like their larger cousins the American shad, are spirited fighters on light tackle, and can be fooled by small jigs and flies.’

Hickory shad are anadromous and spend most of their lives along the western Atlantic coast, from Maine to the St. Johns River in Florida. But they can be found in rivers during the spawning season.

Georgia’s spawning season runs from January to about May, depending on the region.

–Image showing Christian Blake Jones with his record hickory shad is courtesy of the Georgia Department of Resources

Anglers nabbed with 173 fish over the limit; charges pending

Two anglers in Texas face multiple charges and civil restitution after being caught with 173 crappie over the legal possession limit.

Texas Game Wardens in Upshur County, acting on a late-November tip pertaining to a giant pile of fish that had been cleaned and dumped at Lake O’ the Pines, found two men in possession of the gross over-limit.

Wardens seized 350 crappie fillets and donated the fish to “multiple families around the area,” according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Crappie, in the sunfish family, are popular among recreational anglers in Texas. The daily catch and possession limit is 25 fish per person.

–Image showing confiscated crappie fillets is courtesy of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department