17-18" Good Lord man that is a very nice crappie. Around central VA we consider a 12 incher to be a nice crappie and anything 15" or more is considered a trophy.

1 lb = Large

2 lb = Huge

3 lb = Monster

4 lb = Record

A big crappie to me is 2lbs. Unfortunately I haven't caught one that big yet. :'(

soooo no pics of this 17- 18 inch crappie???? :

The crappie LBH referred to me catching out front of Fishermen Cove last year was 19.5 inches on my check it stick.    Was caught on 3/4 oz spinner bait.

My initial response was a nice chunck about 3.5 lbs, and I was referring to a bass, but after finally seeing it, I knew it was monster crappie close to 4 lbs.

Fork has some big crappie.       That crappie was 12 inches sideways on the board, that crappie mouth could have swallowed a can with room to spare on all sides.

i think any thing over 3 is a trophy crappie.    Weekends on Fork right now, you can walk from boat to boat out in the mail lake deep water near the dam, the crappie are already suspended for the winter and people are too.     The bite is on.

Matt

Like anything, depends where you are.  The one here is 18", caught from a six acre suburban residential pond in outside of Chicago in October.  I got a 14, 15 and 16 on the same day.  Not typical!

Like RW said the Mississippi record is over 5 pounds and a 12 incher down here is just a nice crappie .

In a place like Minnesota a 12 incher is probably a bigun . We have a 12 minimum on Grenada Lake .

I feel for sure the next world record will come from one of the North Mississippi flood control reservoirs

Sardis , Arkabuttla , Enid or Grenada

The Mississippi record over 5 pounds came from Arkabuttla in 1957 i think .

flechero,

You're right. Maybe I can get Bud to take me crappie fishing at Kentucky Lake next spring, I'm sure that would give me a much better perspective on what crappie fishing is all about. The few times I have fished for them, they were not particularly exciting. I'm not saying that a mess of "slabs" isn't a good day, but the fight is weak, even on ultra light tackle. The comparison might be to speckled trout: B-O-R-I-N-G, but good to eat!

RW  , a 3 pounder in 15 feet of water hooked up to 12 ft graphite pole and 4 pound line would probably make you pee your panties . LOL

RODBENDER,

Man, I would like to give it a try. If you have room for me sometime this spring, I would like to fish with you. I'm just a few minutes north of the Mississippi border in Germantown (Memphis). Let me know if that might work out for you. I can meet you at any of the lakes you mentioned.

World-Record White Crappie: 5lbs 3oz Enid Dam, Mississippi River 1957

World-Record Black Crappie 5lbs 0oz Santee Cooper Res, SC 1957

A world record however is a world-class fish, which has little to do with trophy-class or record-class.

On average, if you catch a fish weighing 50% of the world record you're midway between trophy & record class.

Roger

RW , that works for me .Grenada is half way between us, and the spawn is not too far off . Week days are best , weekends are always crowded in spring .

It would be a good chance to pick your brain about the smallmouth fishing on Pickwik .

World-Record White Crappie: 5lbs 3oz Enid Dam, Mississippi River 1957

World-Record Black Crappie 5lbs 0oz Santee Cooper Res, SC 1957

A world record however is a world-class fish, which has little to do with trophy-class or record-class.

On average, if you catch a fish weighing 50% of the world record you're midway between trophy & record class.

Roger

ROLO ,

I had it wrong . Arkabuttla produced the state record black crappie .

Enid does hold the state record white crappie .

here is a link to the Mississippi fisheries  website .

http://www.mdwfp.com/Level2/Fisheries/pdf/recordFish.pdf

If this is the same fish that is the world record , what does the Mississippi river have to do with it ?

I wonder how accurate some of these old records are ?

Those are good craps

Here is a 14"er on the last open water here before she locked up with ice.

Caught with my UL - 28" icefishing rod with 4# mono.

I caught a two pound crappie on a 1/2 oz popper last week.

I love catching specks.

Me too...nothing like hooking onto a good crappie and feeling the surge of those slab panfish   Camo, you always seem to land some when I head over to this section.  Good job!

Here is a 14 incher from Eastern WA ;D

what lake is that???

I went to the Sporstman's Expo in San Mateo and they had a cooler full of HUGE crappie, caught at Clear Lake.  I had no idea they got that big!

On a side note this one particular booth also had a cooler full of squid as long as my leg! :-?

I live about 5 minutes from Grenada Lake and about 20 minutes from Enid Lake.  We consider anything over 2 lbs. a nice fish, over 3 lbs. a really good fish, and over 4 lbs a trophy.  I don't crappie fish much, but I'll try to get pictures of two my cousin caught last year.  One is 4 pounds 11 oz.  The other 4 pounds 5 oz.  If I can get the pictures I'll post them.

How about this 16 1/2" crappie my buddy got a few weeks ago. 8-)

Biggest one I've seen personally. 8-) And my buddies personal best.  

I've caught a couple 15" crappie in my day off our pier on Weiss Lake, AL supposedly known as the crappie capitol of the world. My brother caught one on a bass plug that would go 17" but he forgot to bring the stupid fish basket back into the boat before he left the hole so he had a nice basket of water when he got back to the dock!

For about 5 years the lake was really poor in crappie as a lot of unscrupulous fisherman would come into town and fish with 15 or so rods off the boat in a creek. They looked like shrimp boats! They'd catch 2 to 3 times the limit and measure nothing, and would be out of town before the marine police ever knew they were there.

Forgive me if I sound cynical to out of towners, You guys from Kentucky, Ill, and Ohio keep the lake businesses in business! But there are some folks out there who don't care what the law is, they just want to catch a ton of crappie, and to them the give the finger!

It got so bad that about 4 years ago a group of concerned citizens got together a raised money to dump about 100,000 crappie into the lake every year for about 3 years. 300,000 total

Last year was the first season where the 3 year old (the first batch) were eating size. We caught a limit of 12 inch crappie. Im hoping that this year will be even better as those crappie will now be 4 or 5 years old and the numbers should really be up.

Hopefully weiss will be back on the map again!

Hey Jerkbate!

Back on page 1, I responded that 4 lbs was what I "consider a large crappie." I know they are not "common", but lots of guys fishing down there, around you, catch 4+ crappie. I hope you can post a picture of a 4-11, I'm sure it will surprise a few folks!

here is a crappie that weighs 3.70 lbs. and is 18 inches long

That is what I consider large

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t90/onemorepass/grenada06006.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t90/onemorepass/3lb4oz.jpg

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t90/onemorepass/GrenadaMCC412006013.jpg

My cousin is supposed to get me those pictures next week.  In the meantime here are a few pictures of 3+ pounders caught at Grenada that were posted on the MDWFP forum.

nice!!!