Makes Me Wonder

[Jerry Blake]

about the new Arkansas State Record Black Crappie.

While fishing with Carlos yesterday, Jerry Clark from NE Arkansas caught this 18.75-inch hybrid crappie that had a girth of 15-inches and weighed 2-pounds, 6-ounces.

Over the years, we've had several 18 to 18.5-inch crappie with girths in the neighborhood of 13-inches but none of them have been over 2.5-pounds.

I'm still trying to figure out how an 18-inch crappie with a 13-inch girth could weigh 5-pounds.

[creekslick]

Cheap scales maybe

[Crappieawlogist]

this maybe a dumb question...but is a hybrid crappie a cross between black and white crappie?

[Jerry Blake]

this maybe a dumb question...but is a hybrid crappie a cross between black and white crappie?

Yes

[Slab Junkie]

Your scales might be off a little. I would think any 18.75" fish should weigh a little more than 3 lbs unless it was paper thin.

[Billy E]

A lead paint diet.

[Jerry Blake]

Your scales might be off a little. I would think any 18.75" fish should weigh a little more than 3 lbs unless it was paper thin.

I think our ditital scale is accurate to within and ounce.

If this fish would have been caught two months ago - before they started spawning - there's no doubt it would have been over 3-pounds. We've had several 3-pound black crappie that were less than 18-inches long but they were all pre-spawn fish.

Crappie can vary considerably in weight and girth for any given length but for any given length and girth there's a limit to what a crappie can weigh.

[AgriHawg]

I've thought the same thing about the record fish. Just doesn't seem right. But supposedly the fish must be weighed on currently certified scales, with a AGFC representative present. Unless the buddy system was employed, not sure how you could cheat it, short of pushing lead weights down it's gullet(which I know has been done during tourney's).

[Jerry Blake]

I don't think an AGFC representative is required to be present at the weighing, just a "witness". It could be a simple mistake - sometimes a "2" looks a lot like a "5" especially if you look at it up-side-down. It DOES take an AGFC employee to certify the species and to certify a new record but whoever certified that fish hasn't seen many 2-pound or bigger crappie. It would be difficult to hide well over 2-pounds of lead in a fish that isn't much over 2-pounds. It's interesting that a new state record black crappie shows up about the same time the black crappie shows up on the AG&FC license plate.

[RCC]

The crappie out of the local lake weigh light for their length. Compared to lake Conway fish, it appears that they will weigh at least a 1/2 pound more for the same length fish. An 18.75 is a huge fish and I sure would have thought it would have weighed more than 2.6.