Virginia’s Tim White caught what clearly would have been a new IGFA World Record Black Crappie (in the catch-and-release category), however an IGFA technicality wouldn’t allow him to lay claim to it. (Photo courtesy Tim White)
Virginia Angler Misses IGFA Record Crappie Due to Technicality
by Bob McNally, Outdoor Life
Tim White, from Virginia, caught what clearly would have been a new IGFA World Record Black Crappie (catch & release category). However, as reported by Bob McNally in Outdoor Life, White couldn’t be awarded the record because he didn’t follow proper procedures.
On May 12 of this year, White headed out on Virginia’s Occoquan Lake. White told Outdoor Life. “I started fishing about 6 p.m. and caught one on a small 2-inch diving Rapala plug. I made another cast with my spinning outfit and hooked a very good one.”
Using a measuring tape, White measured his black crappie at 18.5 inches in length.
He knew it was a trophy-sized fish, that likely would have been a new Virginia state record. However, the marina he went to didn’t have certified scales.
White, however, was insistent that he wanted to release the fish back into Occoquan Lake in good health, so he opted not to find certified scales and indeed, released the huge crappie.
But White’s fish may still have qualified as the new IGFA catch-and-release world record – records that are based on length measurements. The pending catch-and-release IGFA length record for black crappie is 17.3 inches, caught in Minnesota by Arthur Weston.
White’s Virginia crappie was more than an inch longer than Weston’s fish. But it couldn’t be certified for an IGFA world record because it wasn’t measured on an official IGFA measuring device. Those measuring boards cost $50 and are only available from the Florida-based organization.
“IGFA has length records for fish to encourage anglers to measure and then release their big fish,” says IGFAS manager Zack Bellapigna. “But to maintain consistency in measuring, we require an approved IGFA board measurement device made by one company for that use.”
White told Outdoor Life he wasn’t too worried that his fish wasn’t eligible for state or world-record status.
“I know I’ve caught plenty of big crappies from Occoquan over the years,” White said. “I’ll consider having a taxidermist make a replica mount, since technically it was a world record.”
For comparison, the IGFA World Record black crappie (by weight, 5.7 lbs.) was 19.25 inches long, caught by Lionel Ferguson in a private lake in Tennessee in 2018.
This story, by Bob McNally, is used by permission of Outdoor Life. Bob McNally says he has been an outdoor writer, “since shortly after the earth’s crust cooled.” He has written 12 outdoor books, more than 5,000 outdoor magazine stories (including many for Outdoor Life) and more newspaper outdoor columns and features than there are hairs on a grizzly bear.
