3 pound crappie revisited

[Blue Tin]

Not calling you out and I'm sure there's some truth to what you post here, but catching hundreds of 20" Crappie per year on any lake isn't happening in my opinion. Purely out of curiosity, I just checked the CT state record and it's 4 pounds even, that's for a Black crappie and no mention of any record for Whites. I would think that even a really skinny 20" Crappie would have to hit that mark. Obviously, there have been state records caught that were never certified, but I'm a bit dubious here. My biggest was 17" even and it was right at the 3-pound mark. I THINK I hooked and lost one bigger this year and I've talked myself into believing that it might have been 18" and 4 pounds, but I live in a state that does have 5 pound records for Black AND for White crappie.

Just cause you have trouble grasping something doesn't make it not true or only partially true.

I have yet to catch a white crappie, ever. If/when I do catch one I'll say hey, neat, a white crappie.

As for the folks I was talking about. They were specialists and caught a whole lot of them big crappies. No-one else fished for those fish - no-one else knew where or how or really wanted to. Wish I had asked them to tell me how, woulda been interesting to see what little nuances they used to get the big fish.

Can tell you it was deeper water, steep slope off the west side of a specific island in a specific lake. Think they used live bait and slip bobbers. Seen them out there several times. That's all I got.

Not everyone is worried about a state record fish, or even weighing everything - which is why I said 20 inchers, we never would have weighed a crappie back then.

I could say, oh yeah, big fish don't exist or they are really rare - and for most folks, it is true - and you would believe that. It takes doing something different from what is normally done.

If you want a 5# crappie, you gotta go where they are, find em, and then figure out how to get one to bite.

Sorry bout the big redfish pictures - I was telling a story about how a bait change reflected in a whole new fishery in the same spots we been fishing for about 28 years. We started catching these big girls by using specific bait - they won't eat anything else. 50 inches, 45# or so.

[keeferfish]

Fished for Redfish and Crappie and I can say a 19 to 20 inch crappie has to be WAY more rare than a 50" 45 bl Redfish!

This is an over 17 incher we didn't even weigh but I'd guess close to 3lbs? I personally have only caught 2 over 16 inches my entire life.

[CrappiePappy]

Fished for Redfish and Crappie and I can say a 19 to 20 inch crappie has to be WAY more rare than a 50" 45 bl Redfish!

This is an over 17 incher we didn't even weigh but I'd guess close to 3lbs? I personally have only caught 2 over 16 inches my entire life.

Keef .... I don't know about Mo. laws on length measuring, but in KY that fish would measure closer to 18" (because we can measure our fish with mouth closed & tail pinched together)

[Blue Tin]

Fished for Redfish and Crappie and I can say a 19 to 20 inch crappie has to be WAY more rare than a 50" 45 bl Redfish!

This is an over 17 incher we didn't even weigh but I'd guess close to 3lbs? I personally have only caught 2 over 16 inches my entire life.

The only reason the redfish photos ended up in here is cause I couldn't delete them. Had some eloquent story about fishing over the top of 30-50# fish since 1996 and not even knowing they were there until this past December. A bait change and suddenly catching 40#-class fish where we had only gotten much smaller fish before.

Had the same thing with LM bass - there was a point in a lake with a grass bed adjacent to it. Throw a rubber worm or plug and you'd get fish 12 to 14 inches. Throw a live shiner and the bass size went up to 18-20 inches. Never could get the 4-5# class bass to bite an artificial. Most would say they didn't exist, but they were/are there. I spent a summer or two targeting big LM bass with hand-sized shiners and didn't get any over 23 inches, most were 20 inchers.


If you are getting a big crappie here and there, there are a fishable population of them, just need to figure out what you need to do different to get more of them.

[Kevind62]

Fished for Redfish and Crappie and I can say a 19 to 20 inch crappie has to be WAY more rare than a 50" 45 bl Redfish!

This is an over 17 incher we didn't even weigh but I'd guess close to 3lbs? I personally have only caught 2 over 16 inches my entire life.

I've found, when measuring fish if you stick your finger up his butt he'll pooch his lips out and you gain a half inch. Kind of like going to the proctologist.