Crappie.com - My Biggest Crappie Ever

During 50 years of crappie fishing, I’ve seen three crappie exceeding 4 pounds.

One was a 4-pound, 2-ounce slab, a former Arkansas state record, caught in the early 1970s by a friend fishing a northeast Arkansas farm pond. Mr. Mills, who caught it, brought the fish to the pool hall for everyone to see. I remember marveling at the enormous size of this “barn door,” which was mounted and displayed in the local café. It seemed like a freak of nature.

I never dreamed I might see a bigger crappie, but I weighed two more monstrous slabs while serving as Arkansas’ state fishing records coordinator. One was 4-pound, 4-ounce white crappie caught in 1985 in northwest Arkansas’ Fayetteville Lake. The other was a 4-pound, 7-ounce white crappie—the current Arkansas record—caught by a fisherman casting into east Arkansas’ Mingo Creek in 1993. Unlike most crappie, these weren’t panfish. The fillets would have lapped over the sides of the biggest skillet.

Since I held up Mr. Mills’ 19-inch-long crappie four decades ago, I’ve hoped to catch a comparable slab. But crappie that size are as rare as 20-pound largemouths. Despite hundreds of hours trying, I haven’t hooked one that big.

My personal best was caught in April 1977 in Mellwood Old River Lake, a Mississippi River oxbow in Arkansas once well-known for producing 3-pound-plus crappie. I had fished the lake many times, and on nearly every visit, someone in my party caught one or more barn doors exceeding 3 pounds. During 20 years fishing Mellwood, I often caught slabs near the 3-pound mark.

On this particular day, a friend and I were fishing live shiners along a buckbrush thicket when my cork shot out of sight. The fish tangled me in the dense cover, and it seemed I would lose it. But somehow I pulled the slab from the gnarly bushes, near enough for my friend to net. We knew immediately this was an exceptional fish—perhaps even one of the fabled 4-pounders. So we quickly motored to a bait shop where the proprietor weighed the slab on a certified grocery scale. The 18-inch-long white crappie—a female full of eggs—weighed 3 pounds, 11 ounces. I’ve never caught one bigger and don’t imagine I ever will.

What’s the biggest crappie you ever caught? I asked that question of several pro anglers, guides and fishing companions. Here are some stories they shared.

I never fish on Sunday, but on Easter Sunday 2009, after fishing a Crappie Masters tournament on Grenada Lake, the fish were biting real well, so I took my wife Brandi fishing. We caught 40 fish but kept the legal limit, including five crappie over 3 pounds. The biggest weighed 3.46 pounds! Any time you mix Grenada Lake with B’n’M poles, Vicious fishing line and minnows, you’re gonna have a good day!
--Whitey Outlaw, South Carolina crappie pro

On a calm, blue-skied afternoon near Mount Ida, Arkansas, I plucked from Lake Ouachita the largest crappie I ever saw on the end of my line. My equipment: a St. Croix panfish series rod, a Humminbird fish finder and a serious combination of metal and plastic—a 1-inch, shad-colored, curly-tailed plastic with a silver head to look identically like the shiners crappie were feeding on in deep brush piles. Following the information provided by sonar, we moved into very deep water. There were fish here, but would the crappie I sought really be in these cold depths? I soon had my answer. Her strike was fierce. My rod immediately bowed. What type of beast did I have on my line? It’s couldn’t be a crappie at this depth and with that type of fight—or could it? After a tug of war, I prevailed. To my surprise, it was a beautiful 2-pound crappie! I’d like to say I was able to practice “catch, photo, release,” as was my intent. However, crappie taken from those depths often do not make it. It sacrificed itself and made a hearty meal for three.
--Dena Woerner, writer/strategist, Traditions Media