14+ inch crappie

[jalberg]

I caught a 14.25 inch crappie on Saturday. I don't often target panfish, so I don't know how rare this fish is. It was way bigger than any crappie I've caught in the past. How often do fish this size turn up?

thanks,

Jeremy

[simple1]

I live south of the cities and have yet to catch anything bigger than 11 inches down here.

[archerystud]

There are lakes where you can still find big crappies but I don't know of any where I catch them consistently. A 14+ is a VERY nice fish in my book.

I target them at times and I typically get one or two to break 15 inches per year, but only on a particular lake. My biggest was just shy of 17 inches but I haven't come close to that one again in 8 years. I don't catch crappies like this in the cities either.

Might have a chance this weekend with the warm weather, hopefully.

[50inchpig]

pretty rare, i'd say - did you get a picture? i got 3 over 13" over the winter and I thought that was pretty good for the metro, but a metro 14" is really special.

[jalberg]

my buddy took video of it, but im having trouble getting it into a format i can upload.

[KTroller]

The 17"er in my avatar was a metro catch on '05. The guy who mounted it does most of the mounts for Gander and said it was the biggest metro crappie he'd seen in 12-15 years. I have caught a 14 in that same lake but not for a number of years. Nice catch!

KT

[Zelmsdawg]

I live south of the cities and have yet to catch anything bigger than 11 inches down here.

simple1 - I'll fish occasionally around your area and have found a couple lakes where I one can catch crappies up to 13", mostly through the ice though at least for me. I'm not sure if I'll still be around here next hard water season but if you're interested I fish alone a lot and if you drop me a line I'd be happy to try and put you on some

Zelmsdawg

[Chad Peterson]

Nice catch! You do not hear or see many crappies that big in the metro.

Sniffer

[Outdoor Authority]

On upper red lake it is not un common to hook into a 14" or bigger crappies. It does take some time to find the crappies and when you do odds are more are around. Out of a ten week ice dishing season we caught a total of 16 crappies and ten were over the 14 inch mark. I agree with the rest that 14" crappies are slim and rare to find around the cities. I fish many lakes and areas across the state and most of the lakes I consistantly catch bigger crappies on are over an hour away from the twin cities.

[TravP]

If you want a chance at a big metro crappie, go to Minnetonka. During the UPL event out there this year there were two weighed that went over 16".

[Musky hunter 82]

My wife caught this 14" this past weekend.

[ozzie]

that is a beautiful male crappie...congrats to your wife!!!

[reinhard1]

congradulations on a very nice crappie. good luck.

[jalberg]

I couldnt figure out how to get the video on here, so i just paused the video and took a picture of the computer screen. Anyway, here is the fish.

[bigbucks]

Those are dandies, other than on Upper Red you don't see many over 14". I've caught quite a few 13" or over, but only a handful over 14". Couple of years ago one night we (me & a couple of 10 or 11 year-old's) caught 11 of them 13" or better. They seem more like large mouth bass at that size.

[reinhard1]

what a beauty!!!!good luck.

[Crankbait10]

Zelmsdawg, could u guide me to where i could possibly find these 13"'ers ... only getting them 6-8 all season long... thanks

[MN BassFisher]

That's definitely something to be proud of! Metro crappies of 13"+ are tough! I have yet to do it. My buddy caught a 16" this spring out of a metro lake (he took it to mount it so no one will be catching it again - not sure how I feel about that) and I was out there Pike fishing this year and had a monster 14"+ follow me up and hit my swimbait boatside but it didn't get to the hook. It would have been my biggest Crappie to date for sure. But now it's just a story, ha. Me and my fishing partner still talk about it!

[bobbymalone]

I ran into a guy on Calhoun last year, asked him if he was catching anything. He said he had a couple crappie and one was 14 inches. I immediately laughed and said bull carp. He said he wouldn't have believed it either.

then he reached into the livewell and sure enough. huge crappie.

they are def out there, just not many of them.

[vern]

Wow, 14" out of Calhoun! I've never caught one over 11" in 30 years of fishing that lake. Cool.

[Whisker Warrior]

I live south of the cities and have yet to catch anything bigger than 11 inches down here.

I grew up in Rice county and there are Big slabs down there...tough...but they can be found. My PB is 16" and my old man C&R a 18" two years ago so that should hopefully still be swimming. It seems to go in cycles when you see these big crappies. The 16" and 18" came off same lake in 6FOW hitting a large shiner fishing for walleye. Here's some pics of 16-17" crappies all from same So. MN lake that my buddie's relatives caught...and the solo is a 18" 3lbs...