True trophy Crappie

[Fever]

Here is a pic of a 16 incher I caught on a small west metro lake last friday evening. I was catching crappies anywhere from 6 inches up to about 11 that night when this one lightly tapped a glow devil with a waxy about 5 feet up off bottom in 23 feet of water. She measured an even 16 inches after pinching tail while I was on the lake / in back of my jeep. I folded a blanket around her and continued to fish for about 3 more hours. After I got home I took the pic with my son Logan who just turned 5 last week. The fish measured 15.75 inches at home with the same tape measure. Still a trophy. Wondering if it wasn't operator error due to excitment or if there was a little shrinkage from stress and time out of water in the cold. Anyway, my personal best and one heck of a surprise trophy as this winter has been far below average.

Crazy how one fish can turn things around. On the pic I'm holding it close to my chest... look at the size of it compared to Logan standing directly on my right. Wow.

[Scott K]

Very nice fish!

[fishersofmen]

Awesome fish fever. I lived out in Lester for awhile, nice little town.

[deadeye]

Thats a nice catch! Gotta love catching those slabs!

[Andy Loos1432404924]

wow, nice crappie! thanks for sharing.

[Jim Uran]

You can tell that's a slab for sure!!!! Good job on the catch, and thanks for sharing your picture!

[ozzie]

nice catch and pic!!!! truley a fish that can make an ice season!!!

[Kodiak]

nice fish, my personal best for metro is only 14.5

[hamms-scooter]

What a pig! nice fish thanks for sharing.Bet the little one was excited about that and wants to go out.

[bdafisher]

What a fish! A once in a lifetime crappie. Nice work

[GatorBait]

Yep, that's a dandy there. Good Job and thanks for sharing with us.

[Sonicrunch]

nice. I love big crappies.

[river rat316]

ver nice!! It is my goal to get one over 14" in the metro this winter, but I am failing miserably at it

[buddha]

I love the size of the mouth on that slab. Great fish.

[jwmiller33]

thats a beauty!! congrats! especially considering you caught it on a metro lake, makes it even more of a trophy!

getting it mounted i assume?

[RiverFish]

This brings up a good question. Has this happened to any one?

Your fishing on a slot size lake, minimum measurement. You measure the fish at an 1/8 to a 1/4 over the minimum length. DNR comes later and measures the fish below the minimum length.

Comments?

[hcmpls1]

Nice crappie! My personal best was an 11.5" (I know this pales in comparison to you guys) caught Monday on a west metro lake! Unfortunately he didn’t have any bigger cousins swimming with him... My son was excited nonetheless! He's used to us catching small crappies he didn’t know they could get that big!

[Maverick]

That is a great crappie and well worth mounting if you can afford it. Do you think it is a White or a Black Crappie. If it is a white crappie, then it is really a trophy. At 15 3/4 it was probably approaching 3 pounds. The record White is 3lbs 15 oz. Catching a crappie like that would be roughly equivilent to catching a 12# walleye and probably just as rare.

[jblabsnduck]

Can you say photo shop????? Just kidding.

Nice fish for sure.

I was lucky like you once.

I caught a 17 1/4" crappie on a little south metro lake.

Couple guys didn't believe me till I showed them the pic.

Nice catch and don't feel bad for keeping it, I know I didn't.

[Wally fisher]

Thats a nice crappie!!! If you feel like sharing the lake you were on a bet of few of us wouldnt mind catching one like that. I'm just gonna take a guess that its your little secret. Nice catch again

[chillincarp870]

i caught a 16 incher on Prior a few years back. it was a hybrid (mix between black and white) I was amazed when it came through the whole. I mounted it, i feel there is no reason not to. ya i totally believe in cpr but with a true city trophy like that there was no way it was going back in the hole. That is the only fish I have kept in the past 3-5 years. If you don't a know a place to get it mounted go to Minnesota Valley Taxidermy its on ct rd 42 right onthe border of savage and Burnsville on the East side of Dairy Queen. He does a great job and i got mine done right around $180. Great Fish and happy to see the little man so happy. he is hooked i guarantee it.

[Hester]

Yeah, I don't think you will be hearing the name of that lake any time soon. And why would he tell ya? No one in there right mind would. And it looks like a big Black crappie.

Nice fish Fever,

[CALVINIST]

Congrats on the awesome crappie! I love glow demons at night for crappies.

[CrappieAttack]

TO RIVER FISH:

You're probably measuring the fish incorrectly. You can do it with a tape measure, but it's not the best way. You should have a measuring device that you can push the fish's head up to and close its mouth completely.

Then you can measure it by pinching it's tail.

From the nose (mouth closed completely) to the tip of the tail is the actual length.

hope that helps!

Cody

here's an example:

This brings up a good question. Has this happened to any one?

Your fishing on a slot size lake, minimum measurement. You measure the fish at an 1/8 to a 1/4 over the minimum length. DNR comes later and measures the fish below the minimum length.

Comments?

[Sonicrunch]

I read elsewhere on this site about fish shrinking in livewells.