Thread: 5 lb OH crappie?

Originally Posted by chaunc

I’ve had a guy tell me he and his buddy were catching 16 and 17’ crappies regularly from a pond. Took him fishing with me one day. I caught a thick black crappie and asked him how big it was. He said it was about 18 “s. I looked at him like he was crazy. Pulled out my golden ruler and measured the fish. 13”s on the nose. I asked him if he was sure he was catching 16 and 17” crappies in that pond. He doesn’t carry a ruler with him. I asked him to stop spreading lies about the fish he’s been catching. Never fished with him again. Moral of the story, fish are as big as you claim them to be until you put them on a ruler or scale. Those can make you a lier pretty quickly. Nice five pounder, if you say so.

During my bass tournament days (please forgive me), members would claim that they had caught 5#'s during the tournament. Amazingly, they would shrink to high 3#ers on the scale. We called it "big eyeing them".

Mike

A guy catches a near-world record fish and can’t find anything better than his arm to measure it?

Originally Posted by catchNgrease

Possibly a small person.

I'd say if his forearm measures 21 to 22 inches from fingertip to inside his elbow he's a good sized dude, very doubtful. Nice fish but no 5lber.

i seen a 2 lb fish one time at a fishing barge .
folks all over the barge said so and so has it in his bucket .
so and so was wandering around with said 2 lber showing it off .
so an so wandered up smiling like real big
i said heard you ketched a 2 lber
he said yep
i said can i see it please
my words were this ....
did you weigh it
he said yep
i said where and who had the scale ?
he said the marina store
i said friend their scale is way off
by around a lb .....

Originally Posted by chaunc

I’ve had a guy tell me he and his buddy were catching 16 and 17’ crappies regularly from a pond. Took him fishing with me one day. I caught a thick black crappie and asked him how big it was. He said it was about 18 “s. I looked at him like he was crazy. Pulled out my golden ruler and measured the fish. 13”s on the nose. I asked him if he was sure he was catching 16 and 17” crappies in that pond. He doesn’t carry a ruler with him. I asked him to stop spreading lies about the fish he’s been catching. Never fished with him again. Moral of the story, fish are as big as you claim them to be until you put them on a ruler or scale. Those can make you a lier pretty quickly. Nice five pounder, if you say so.

About a month ago I was doing some new dock scouting in an area by myself one evening after work. I didn't have but maybe an hour of daylight to fish. I got back to the boat ramp and a guy's boat had got away from the dock. His girlfriend asked me if I could take him to his boat, so I gladly obliged. Anyway the guy asked me what I was fishing for and I told him. He said he normally bass fished but he had been crappie fishing the past few days, then he said "Dude, I caught a pig crappie yesterday, it weighed over 3 pounds." I told him that was a good un. He said he had a few big slabs in his boat that he'd caught that day, but none of them would weigh 3 lbs, but they were big slabs. I told him I had one crappie in my live well that I was gonna release, but if he wanted it he was welcome to it. We got our boats on our trailers and we're sitting side by side on the ramp. He's just steady talking about those SLABS in his boat. "I've got a couple that'll push two pounds." I told him the one I had sure wasn't a slab but it was a good eating size crappie. He said he'd take it so I reach down in the live well to get the fish for him and I grab it about the same time that he says "look at this pig slab." I turn around with fish in hand and he's holding up a crappie about 10 1/2" long. I hold up the one I'd been poor mouthing and it's bigger than the one he has. Now I'd be tickled catching 10 1/2" - 11" fish nearly any time, but ain't either one of them a slab, especially a "pig" slab. LOL So I sez to the guy, Is that one of your 2 pounders? He said he thought it would weigh 2 pounds, but "maybe it's more like 1.5" I sorta grinned and asked him how long that 3 pounder was that he caught the day before. He said, "well it was a little over 14" long, maybe it weighed more like 2 pounds." I said, "maybe it weighed more like a pound and a half." He said, "yeah, maybe so." LOL I wish I'd had it on video. I talked with the guy and his girlfriend for several minutes and they seemed like good folks. I don't think he was intentionally lying, I just don't think he'd ever weighed any fish. I have bass fishermen here quite often tell me about the 2 pound crappie they catch while bass fishing. I know they're catching good crappie on bass tackle, but they aren't catching many 2 pounders, not down on the south end of the lake where I fish most of the time.

Many years ago , I was in my teens , my dad caught a crappie that was huge . He caught it while bass fishing out of a 40 acre pond that wasn’t supposed to have crappie in it . He caught it on a spring lizard . It would have been a state record but we took it home and ate it without weighing it .
A few years later , grown , fishing with my brother in my late 20’s , I caught one that on certified grocery scales weighed 2 1/4# . I had it mounted , thinking I’d never catch anything bigger . Caught out of Lake Lanier, our biggest in state reservoir.
Twenty years later , fishing West Point Reservoir here in Ga. , I caught five or six one afternoon that were between 2-3# on a hand held scale .
I gave them to an old lady fishing off the dock when I put my boat on the trailer . No cellphones with cameras yet .
I give this information as proof I know what a big crappie looks like .
Four years ago I caught my biggest crappie in January, fishing from the bank , out of a less than 10 acre private pond . No scales with me and I released her .
But I did take a picture . I estimated over 3# and around 16”
It took me a lot of story , to get to my point , that I think the big ones will come out of private ponds . Places you wouldn’t think they would be .
I think our state record came out of a pond .
Edit: I just checked and our state record white crappie was 5# even (1984)and was caught out of a private pond , the record black crappie was a tie at 4#4 ounces , both came out of ponds . 1971 & 1975 .
You would think with all of the electronics and more people fishing for them , a new record would have been caught more recently.
BTW , the world record black crappie came out of a private pond, 5#7 ounces , the world record white 5#3 ounces came out of a reservoir.

most folks that have never actually weighed a crappie dont realize how big they have to be in real life to reach the over 2 actual weight .
a 2 lb crappie is a beautiful fish ....
one night i was in a crowd of folks jerking spawn run fish late
everyone was talking about a 2.25 some guy down the way ketched
i hooked a toad fish and on the swing she broke my line and i pounced on her before she could get back to the water
she was in the over 2 range for sure and i would guess around the 2.25 area .
the guy watching was about to lose his mind and said it was over 3 for sure !
I held the fish a bit and looked it over pretty hard and told him
this fish is in the actual 2.25 range my friend and if you bring you bucket over here it yours
he was like are you sure ?
totally sure sir , just here having fun

Originally Posted by Ketchn

most folks that have never actually weighed a crappie dont realize how big they have to be in real life to reach the over 2 actual weight .
a 2 lb crappie is a beautiful fish ....
one night i was in a crowd of folks jerking spawn run fish late
everyone was talking about a 2.25 some guy down the way ketched
i hooked a toad fish and on the swing she broke my line and i pounced on her before she could get back to the water
she was in the over 2 range for sure and i would guess around the 2.25 area .
the guy watching was about to lose his mind and said it was over 3 for sure !
I held the fish a bit and looked it over pretty hard and told him
this fish is in the actual 2.25 range my friend and if you bring you bucket over here it yours
he was like are you sure ?
totally sure sir , just here having fun

Yep , same thing with bluegills .
Folks talk about catching one pounders all day , when in reality they’re lucky to make 1/2 pound .