Quote Originally Posted by chaunc View Post
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.