Last spring I caught a 16" crappie that weighed 2lb 13oz in my pond. I caught it on a 5" Senko . That was the biggest one I've seen.

That's a monster crappie. I caught a 15-16 inch range crappie on a Zoom Horny Toad in a pond a few years ago. I'd just caught a 5lb bass in the exact same spot on the edge of the weed line when that crappie inhaled the bait just like the bass did. The pond had very tannic water and the white bait glowed under water. It was pretty cool watching it disappear and really surprising when it was a crappie.

I've caught a few at 18" in New Jersey when I was a kid. They stretched from the tips of my fingers to above my elbow. They were so big, I didn't have the heart to kill them. I let them go. I wet home and measured where the fish measured on my arm.

Looking back, I shoulda kept one of them for a mount. One hit a #7 fat rap in fire tiger by a tree. The other hit a small jig in what seemed like the moddle I no where (I was drifting in a small aluminum).

I used to drift over weedbeds with a split-shot rigged Creme worm. That was a killer on big crappies.

I've caught a few at 18" in New Jersey when I was a kid. They stretched from the tips of my fingers to above my elbow. They were so big, I didn't have the heart to kill them. I let them go. I wet home and measured where the fish measured on my arm.

Looking back, I shoulda kept one of them for a mount. One hit a #7 fat rap in fire tiger by a tree. The other hit a small jig in what seemed like the moddle I no where (I was drifting in a small aluminum).

I used to drift over weedbeds with a split-shot rigged Creme worm. That was a killer on big crappies.

The one with the little spinner in front of it? I used to catch a ton of crappie on that thing when I was a kid, lots of bass and catfish too. 

Recently caught one 15.5 inches at 2lb 11oz.  This one will be a wall decoration. 

Jeez that is a very dark crappie

I consider a crappie to be big when it is over 13 inches and anything over 14 inches is a very big crappie.

I've been on an annual spring quest for a large slab for years now.  Spring is when they congregate in shallower water to spawn and are easier to find.  The lake I fish them for has proven to have enormous crappies (15-17 inchers) because I fish in a contest in early May and there are a dozen of them or more at the weigh in.  So I have seen them with my own eyes.

 

The question I have is this.  Do the really big crappies hang out with the rest of them in the spring?  I would assume at some point they do their reproductive cycle just like the rest.  If I'm catching 11-12 inchers should I just keep fishing and hope that a really big one comes along or do I need to change the area I'm fishing to selectively target another location?

 

Crappie fishing isn't really my thing but its really the only species I can target before bass season opens in May so I have to make the most of it.

We have four small lakes just an hour south of Memphis that have produced 

World Records and consistently produce 3 & 4lb crappie, both black and white.

 

Sardis  https://www.ms-sportsman.com/content/crappie-hotspots-series-sardis-lake/

Enid  https://www.fishidy.com/map/us/mississippi/enid-lake

Arkabutla  https://www.fishidy.com/map/us/mississippi/arkabutla-lake

Grenda  https://www.mdwfp.com/fishing-boating/fishing-reports/grenada-lake/

 

 

 

On 1/16/2021 at 10:43 PM, Bobby Harrelson said:

Recently caught one 15.5 inches at 2lb 11oz.  This one will be a wall decoration. 

Yours is 1 oz off my PB . What did you catch it on ?