Tennessee record and World Record

So we know our buddy Jam Ferguson's fish was a Tennessee State Record Black Crappie, but I remember someone questioning whether it was a World Record Black Crappie or not. Some articles said world record, others said state record, and I just wanted to know for sure. Seems like the State Record has been confirmed, and the Word record certification process is still underway. Very cool.

Here's a few lines from a story out of the Tennessee Wildlife Magazine.:

"The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said the results from a genetic analysis verified the record. An application for a world record status will have to be submitted to the International Game Fish Association.

"TWRA received verification from Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign that Mr. Ferguson’s fish is a pure strain black crappie without any hybrid genes and is being certified as the new state record," TWRA wrote in a release.

The crappie Jam reeled in ended up outweighing Tennessee’s current state record of 4 pounds, 4 ounces. That fish was reeled in by Clyde Freeman in Brown’s Creek Lake, 42 miles east of Jackson, Tennessee in 1985. Ferguson’s crappie ended up weighing in at around 5 pounds and 7.68 ounces with the help of one wildlife officer who found him a proper scale to weigh the fish on.

The fish even busted the scale for the world record black crappie weighing in at an even 5 pounds, caught from a private lake in Missouri in 2006, according to the International Game Fish Association."

Original article can be found here: It's official: Loudon Co. fisherman reels in state, world record-breaking fish | wbir.com

Ed,

It is very cool. I did some research a while back on this as I was curious what the thought process was regarding the catching of said fish within a pond. Obviously, we all have varietions of what we call a river, stream, creek, lake, impoundment, pond, and so on. I was always curious as to IF a fish such as this were to have been caught in a private pond, would it be allowed to earn the tittle of state or world record. It appears as though the community has zero issue with this being in a pond and therefore the record will go as stands. Obviously, the genetic testing was done in order to ensure the fish met the criteria of actually being a pure black crappie (in this case).

Keep feeding that fish in your fish tank at the house! A little more than 4 lbs to go!

Awesome catch, unreal size!!

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Originally Posted by wicklundrh

Ed,

Keep feeding that fish in your fish tank at the house! A little more than 4 lbs to go!

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I always though record fish from "private" ponds was suspect.

Get a nice 120 gallon aquarium, declare it a "private pond" and raise your very own record fish.

Tom

Talked to Jam Ferguson last evening and he told me he will be presented a certificate from the TWRC this friday at their monthly meeting in knoxville as the new state record. He also talk to the IGFA folks and was told he would here from them sometime in Oct.

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Originally Posted by T_om

I always though record fish from "private" ponds was suspect.

Get a nice 120 gallon aquarium, declare it a "private pond" and raise your very own record fish.

Tom

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I really didn't have an opinion one way or the other. I just always wondered what they would say "IF" it happened. And then... boom, it happened. It was a great catch by Mr. Fergusun and we have to remember that it did in fact bite the line and he fought it in and landed it. It does make you wonder though where the line would be drawn. There are some pretty big ones in the Bass Pro and Cabelas aquariums.

That being said, I really don't know what the gain would be to do something like that? I would venture to guess that, even if we took a Crappie out of the wild, put it in a pond, nursed it, fed it, babyed it, and so on, we STILL couldn't grow something like this. Those genes are probably 1 in 10billion! That is why I think that, regardless of where it was caught, it was still a record as I'm betting it might take 30 years and millions of fish at a hatchery before you came across ONE that has all the right stuff to grow this big.

My hat is off to Mr. Fergusun for his catch!

And we could take a crappie out of any lake, river etc and also put it in an aquarium and do the same thing. The crappie world could not have got any finer young man to catch this record than Jam Ferguson. Great young man.

Growing crappie is not what this thread is about. Congrats to Jam. Get us a good pic tenncrappie, if possible.

Couple of things.
Crappie will only grow as big as genetics and their environment will allow. There no way I will be 6' tall, not in my genetics.

Fish in Basspro tanks are trophies caught locally and donated.

Congrats to him for catching a once in a lifetime monster.

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Sounds like a fine young man. I like to see good things happen to good people. Congratulations!

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Originally Posted by T_om

I always though record fish from "private" ponds was suspect.

Get a nice 120 gallon aquarium, declare it a "private pond" and raise your very own record fish.

Tom

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If it’s that easy - go for it. Be sure to post a picture when your home grown fish breaks Jam’s world record.


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The thing I remember most about his fish is that he said the fish did not put up a fight at all. It just came in like a like wet towel. I am still trying to break the 3 lb crappie mark. A fish his size is only something I can dream about

What JP said above.

Growing a fish to be a record is akin to buying a fish from someone else to win a tourney. Bad ethics.

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Originally Posted by Grainraiser

The thing I remember most about his fish is that he said the fish did not put up a fight at all. It just came in like a like wet towel

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That fish was so fat it ran out of gas quickly lol.

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Originally Posted by skeetbum

What JP said above.

Growing a fish to be a record is akin to buying a fish from someone else to win a tourney. Bad ethics.

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My thoughts on doing something like that would be like hunting a deer that was bred to be a trophy. Some people may enjoy shooting a deer like that in an area enclosed by a high fence but I'm not one of them.

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Originally Posted by lowe rider

My thoughts on doing something like that would be like hunting a deer that was bred to be a trophy. Some people may enjoy shooting a deer like that in an area enclosed by a high fence but I'm not one of them.

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Or kinda like hunting a deer using a high-tech Satellite or Drone. Or kinda like fishing with a $$$$ sonar fish-finder.


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Congratulations on an awesome fish.


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indeterminate growth rates will produce a specimen in fish that is a world record for sure at some point if left long enough to grow and its possible with numerous species . I love the fact he was bank angling and from what I saw it was the only fish on his stringer and he was right beside a road that appeared to be a public road and had the fish on a .99 cent Walmart yellow cord stringer .
Tip your hat and don't be jealous and I say KABOOM bro ….real nice fish ! :highfive

I just want to make sure that everyone understands my previous messages.

I was always curious as to IF something like this would be considered for a record. Not because I don't feel it would be worthy in any way shape or form but, rather the perception of what others might think. I always had in my mind that my luck would be to catch something like this, in a similar situation, and have people say "it doesn't count". I personally am glad that the decision is that it IS in fact a record regardless of where it was caught and I congratulate Mr. Fergusun!

I would love to find out as much information about the genetics of this fish as possible along with it's age. From that, we could get a pretty good barometer of how fast these fish actually grow! Let's hope that this fish passed on those genetics!

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

indeterminate growth rates will produce a specimen in fish that is a world record for sure at some point if left long enough to grow and its possible with numerous species . I love the fact he was bank angling and from what I saw it was the only fish on his stringer and he was right beside a road that appeared to be a public road and had the fish on a .99 cent Walmart yellow cord stringer .
Tip your hat and don't be jealous and I say KABOOM bro ….real nice fish ! :highfive

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Actually, it was caught from a private "pond" (spring fed, weedy body of water that's 1 acre across & 18' deep) ... and as you can see from this picture, it's on a blue cord stringer :

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/21...G?v=1536204089

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/21...G?v=1536208940

I think the picture of him beside a public road, that you're referring to, is this one :

http://www.gameandfishmag.com/files/...-Crappie-2.jpg

But that's taken when he was having the TWRA verify the weight & species for the records.

Wow, that's a big boy.

Just some food for thought it's hard to grow crappie big in smaller lakes. I know because I fish a lot of small lakes most are full of drinks. Fish records are for the fish not the fisherman. Anyone can get lucky and catch one big fish and that's the case with most records. Infact a lot of records are broken by mistake. The state record striped bass in Alabama was caught by a guy that was catfishing. The red eye bass was caught by a friend of mine when he was fishing for striped bass. I'm proud for the guy and I have no problem with it.

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My bad ....I lost my mind for a minute in defense of his accomplishment...
But it was the only one on the stringer .....and it is still a bulldozer
It reminds a lot of the white crappie I managed 5 years ago or so years ago in a farm pond
And all the jealous ugly things that were implied and said because I chose to let her go .
Was she a new world record white ....I don’t think so ,but sometimes I wonder if she topped 5
I know the replica I chose to represent her is a 4 lb 4 oz . Fish and the one witness to my capture of that fish ...my wife ...
Will tell you flat out the released fish was a lot larger .
Just saying ...be kind be happy and stay focused
It ain’t about who ketches bigger or more
And when it is .....you are lost
Kaboom :highfive



I think the picture of him beside a public road, that you're referring to, is this one :

http://www.gameandfishmag.com/files/...-Crappie-2.jpg

But that's taken when he was having the TWRA verify the weight & species for the records.[/QUOTE]

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

My bad ....I lost my mind for a minute in defense of his accomplishment...
But it was the only one on the stringer .....and it is still a bulldozer
It reminds a lot of the white crappie I managed 5 years ago or so years ago in a farm pond
And all the jealous ugly things that were implied and said because I chose to let her go .
Was she a new world record white ....I don’t think so ,but sometimes I wonder if she topped 5
I know the replica I chose to represent her is a 4 lb 4 oz . Fish and the one witness to my capture of that fish ...my wife ...
Will tell you flat out the released fish was a lot larger .
Just saying ...be kind be happy and stay focused
It ain’t about who ketches bigger or more
And when it is .....you are lost
Kaboom :highfive

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Ain't no thang, bruh ... I was just "setting the record straight". (lightheartedly, of course)

And while this fish is a Tenn state record (& probable World Record) .... it ain't his first big fish. A few years ago he caught a 4lb 4oz Crappie that was almost a state record back then.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/21...g?v=1536788139

(copied from a news article)

"Jam isn’t new to catching giants. In fact, he caught a potential state record black crappie a few years ago with the fish weighing in at a little over 4 lbs 4 oz. Unfortunately for Jam, this fish ended up on the dinner plate instead of in the record books."

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Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

Actually, it was caught from a private "pond" (spring fed, weedy body of water that's 1 acre across & 18' deep) ... and as you can see from this picture, it's on a blue cord stringer :

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/21...G?v=1536204089

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/21...G?v=1536208940

I think the picture of him beside a public road, that you're referring to, is this one :

http://www.gameandfishmag.com/files/...-Crappie-2.jpg

But that's taken when he was having the TWRA verify the weight & species for the records.

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Simply amazing!

Now that is a nice fish great catch


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:HandsClapping