Indiana's current state record crappie is 4-lbs. 11-oz. and was caught back in 1994. About 2 weeks ago, a gentleman fishing out at Geist Res. caught what might have been a new state record crappie. 'Might have been' being the key as the fish was weighed and then supposedly released. From the background of the picture, I'm guessing it was weighed on the scales at the ramp office. The crappie was reported to weigh 5-lbs. 6-oz. and was caught on a charteuse 2" Power Grub in about 3' of water. I was forwarded a picture of this beast the other day, so I'll post it below and let everyone decide for themselves, as we will probably never know for certain.
UPDATE: Click and read comments for the actual story on this fish from the angler who caught it, Tim Goen.
That is one freaking gigantenormous crappie, impressive doesnt even cover it. I would say its pretty close to legit looking at the size of the fish compared to his hands.
I have trouble catching 2 pound bass let alone a 5 pound crappie!
WOW!
Posted by: Josh McDermott | September 15, 2010 at 01:50 PM
Hey everyone My name is Tim Goen and I am the one who caught this Crappie and that is my dad Dave Goen holding the Crappie for the picture. I just wanted to clear a few things up. This Crappie was caught in a cast net right under the Olio bridge at Geist Reservoir while we were trying to catch shad. We did weight it on some old scales we had, you know the one that has a dial and is always under the actual weight,it ended up saying four and half pound which is still a monster crappie but i dont think it was the state record. The Crappie was 18 inches and had a belly about as wide as my finger is long and also we could have fit our fist in its mouth it was the biggest crappie either one of us had ever seen and probably will never see one like that again. However, I promise you that we did turn it back into geist to be caught by someone else and by that time it should be a state record. If you want to see some better pictures of the fish or verify that we are the ones who caught it go to www.centralkats.com or www.goenfishin.com and go to the photos page. Thank you all for sharing this picture it was alot of fun having this fish for about the time it takes to take a few pictures and then throw it back beleive me it wasn't easy.
Posted by: Tim Goen | September 18, 2010 at 11:18 AM
Thanks for dropping by the site Tim. Great to put a name with the picture, and especially great to hear the actual story from the person that caught it. Much appreciated! That is one hell of a crappie, and to think that it is back in the lake waiting to be caught is awesome. Always makes me wonder how versions of these stories get created, retold and passed along by anglers, especially in this case where the differences between story and actual are so different. So from the other site links, it looks like it was captured this spring (April 2, 2010) then?
Hope the catfishing that night treated you as well as the crappie did :) Geist has a heck of a channel cat population. Some years it seems they get a penchant for bass lures and we catch a bunch of them by accident.
Posted by: Big Indiana Bass | September 18, 2010 at 12:42 PM
That's a beautiful fish, what a great story... I caught a 13.5" in the Kankakee river two weeks ago and I thought it was huge believe it or not. I was holding up a tape measure a work today thinking 13.5" was enormous. I know now how big these fish can get reading your story. Best of luck tim, beautiful fish. I could only imagine how thrilled you must have felt seeing this fish
Posted by: J | October 18, 2011 at 08:33 PM
I'm a 13 year old female, who just caught a 16 inch Crappie!
Posted by: Samantha Palamarchuk | April 08, 2012 at 04:42 PM