I caught this fish in April while fishing in the Sand Springs Lake in Sand Springs, OK. It was caught on a size 8 olive wooly bugger, and 5x tippet.
She was about a 5 minute fight, and she took off into the depths of the lake, but I managed to turn her, and she didn’t struggle much on the way in. When I landed her, I noticed that she was full of eggs, so I photographed her, and put her back.
This week I noticed in “American Angler” that the IGFA world record for White Crappie on a fly rod is only 2 lbs 8 oz. I estimate this fish to be between 17 and 18 inches long.
That is one amazing fish. I have never seen a crappie (strawberry bass in my kid hood) anything near that size. In fact I took a couple of largemouths that are smaller than that and thought they were great.
I caught her from the bank. I was taking a week of between jobs vacation, and my wife and I went to OK to visit her family. It wasn’t like I was on a dedicated fishing trip or anything; I walked over to the municipal lake, just to get out of the house and burn some time while my wife was having lunch with her college friends.
Ha, the entire rig (rod, line, and reel) cost me less than 75 dollars, and the fly was one that I got from the FAOL beginners swap!
I cast my fly next to a metal pole which was sticking out of the water, and let it sit for a second while I fixed something on my vest, and when I picked my rod up again, it had this monster fish on the other end.
I was going to keep her, but knew that it was probably more sporting to put her back and let her lay her eggs. Of course at the time, I just thought “oh, cool. a huge crappie.” And then I realized that my father, just like my father-in-law with whom I was staying, probably wouldn’t believe just the story, so I had to run up the hill quickly, and get an old man smoking a cigarette in his car to take my picture. I tried to put the fish in the water for a few moments before I had the man take my picture. When I released her I tried to rehabilitate her, and she seemed to swim off just fine.
So if this is a world record, is there anything I can do to claim it?
I caught one in a Strip Pit in Broken Arrow that measured 17.5 inches. It was pretty hefty and beautiful… I let it go after measuring it. Didn’t have a scale in my tube but a very nice fish.
Okie Noodler. Next time you want to take a phot of the fish on the grass, lay a dollar bill next to it. They are 6 inches long and will give an idication of its size. You can then let her go to play again someday. Also, nothing wrong with your rig, as the saying goes…“fish don’t care how much you paid for it” Nice fish!
I learn more about the world while talking to myself when fishing alone
I am a member of IGFA and have the 2006 book of records right here in front of me. The World Record you speak of is the 4 lb. test line class fly rod record, or about 5X tippet. The All tackle world record is 5 lb., 3 oz. and the regular 4 lb. line class record (spinning monofilament) is 3 pounds even. Records exist for all line classes so if you didn’t catch it on 4 lb. test just ask and I’ll tell you whether you broke the world record for the tippet strength you caught it on. It’s all moot anyway if you released it without going through the proper procedures for entering it. Nice fish!
