Be careful what you wish for!! Cane Creek in Arkansas has had some monsters caught there

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/arkansas-crappie-fishing/132125-cane-creek-trophy-mount.html

BUT, the window of opprotunity is extremely short, you have to know exactly where they are and fishing for the other 11 months a year is poor!

Not that I wouldn't want to catch a few like these, but I'd rather catch good solid fish in numbers any day.

I've only been chasing Crappie as a target fish for 2 years now and have had the luck to catch 3 fish that weighed 2.6 LBs each. I have a digital scale in the boat and each fish was weighed just as soon as I caught it (I have pictures). All 3 fish were caught in my early crappie fishing days when I didn't know what I was doing. One took a minnow and the other 2 took a blk/Chartuese tube bait. All fish came out of Lewisville.
I think having a lot of fishing pressure has something to do with it.
Good, bad or indifferent all 3 fish were released to the grease.

Good topic.

I have often wondered why our lakes dont produce 3 pound plus fish like the Southeastern lakes do.

Our state record comes from a shallow lake that was relatively brand new. That fish had to have come down Richland creek and found its way into the lake. Maybe Richland creek somewhere above the lake has such monsters. I may not be correct about this but the 4.5 was caught in 72 I believe and the Navarro Mills lake filled up in the late 60's so there is not a very good chance the lake was even old enough to grow it from its spawn.

Alot of our state records in many different species were caught during the early stages of the lakes where they were caught. So I think the feeder system to these lakes are important to the big Crappie.

The TPW do not stock Crappie the way they did back in the early 70's so that is probably a factor.

Also there is a different type of soil from just east of the metromess and it stays pretty consistant all the way through Alabama and into Georgia so that may have something to do with it also. It produces a different vegetation and tree system for those lakes.

Really dont think its as much about pressure than it is about the other scenarious I have brought up.

I think there are some monsters in Fork somewhere though, you probably wont catch them in a traditional pattern or depth of water and it will probably be caught on a big live shad for bait.
I always try something different everytime I go out there just for that reason.

Interesting topic...

The fact that expert outfits like Spindle up North, BigCrappie down South, and The Crappie Guy in between, fish daily on lakes with healthy Crappie populations makes it seem like 3lb Crappie are either extremely elusive (and smart), or there just aren't that many of them to start. I'd be lucky if I could get two 1.5 lb fish in the same trip to duct-tape together, let alone a 3lber. What would the bass equivalent of a 3lb Crappie be? I'm guessing it would be over 10lbs.

Id say probably more like a 16 pound bass TDub

WOW!! Thanks BDB. That definitely puts it in perspective. I assume that there are a lot more bass anglers than Crappie, and I'd venture to say they don't see 16lb bass too often, do they?

No but they had 30 or 40 SALs this year and they were all over 13

I doubt "3er" genes have been identified or even exist. It is one thing to sequence a genome and another to identify which gene does what.

I guess those would be our 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 lbers, huh? I was just thinking with all of the huge fish being pulled out of Texoma now, it's kinda strange that not one has made it to the magic number. In the words of the great Johnny Carson 'wierd, wild stuff...'

Impressive that was a white crappie from Enid Reservior.
Still that is not the biggest crappie caught and recorded was A Black Crappie Caught in Seaplane Canal Westwego Louisian 1969.
6.00 pounds I would have liked to have seen that one
Sorry got a little off topic.

I hope these two come back to were I Found And Left Them. Last Oct.

I might have been 15. Not 100%.

Clearly this is a result of all you miscreants giving fish away to friends and family......

You been talkin' to a certain guide or somethin'??