Charlotte Angler Reels in Whopper White Crappie for New State Record

RALEIGH, N.C. (March 18, 2008) — If shattered state records are any indication, white crappie fishing has been smoking hot this winter. For the third time in less than three months, the state record has been broken — this time by James G. (Greg) Brown of Charlotte, who reeled in a whopper white crappie on March 5 from a pond at the Waverly Swim Club in Charlotte.

Brown caught his fish, which weighed 3 pounds, 4 ounces and measured 18 ½ inches in length and 15 ½ inches in girth, using a Berkley rod, Shimano reel and a bass minnow as bait.

Brown’s catch surpasses the previous record-breaker, a 1-pound, 15-ounce white crappie, caught by 15-year old angler Hunter Burris of Stanly County on Feb. 22. Burris caught his fish from a farm pond in Stanly County, using a Daiwa rod and reel combo and a slider as a lure. In December, Brian (Buck) Stikeleather of Stony Point reeled in his 1-pound, 13-ounce record breaker from Lake Norman, using a Shakespeare Outcast rod, Quantum Icon reel and, on a 6-pound test line, a Bass Assassin lure. 

The flurry of records began when the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission established separate records for white and black crappie in May 2007. At that time the existing 4-pound, 15-ounce state record crappie caught at a city lake in Asheboro was determined to be a black crappie based on a taxonomic mount.  

A third record-breaking fish in the Piedmont Region doesn’t surprise N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission fisheries biologist Troy Thompson, who says that some of the best crappie populations – both white and black – are found in Piedmont reservoirs, rivers and large ponds, with white crappies usually running a little larger than black crappies.

Brown had been fishing the 20-acre private pond at Waverly Swim Club just about every day since December trying to land a state record. He was catching a lot of big crappies, most of them black, and found that they were hitting bigger bait. When he finally landed “the big white one,” he was fishing for bass on a 12-pound Stren line with a larger minnow than normally would be used for catching crappies.

The latest record-breaking fish was weighed on certified scales at Perry’s Market in Charlotte. Thompson verified the catch.

To qualify for a state record, anglers must have caught the fish on a hook and line, have the fish weighed on a scale certified by the N.C. Department of Agriculture, witnessed by one observer, have the fish positively identified by a fisheries biologist from the Commission and submit an application with a full, side-view photo of the fish. 

For a list of all freshwater fish state records in North Carolina or more information on the State Record Fish Program, click here. To learn more about white and black crappie, including fishing tips and identifying characteristics, click here.