IT'S A REAL PICTURE, NOT PHOTOSHOPED. IT'S A BIG FISH, JUST CAN'T TELL HOW BIG. PROBABLY 4# OR LESS. DOUBT IT'S A WORKS RECORD THOUGH.

+1 Looking at his finger holding by that tail, if his 2digits on his finger is about 2in. then that crappy is about 17 incher. Yeah, it might go 4lb, NOT a world record but one heck of a big crappy !

My baloney-o-meter is on red alert.

Real picture, real fish. All you have to do is have the camera real close to the fish. Still, a nice crappie by any standard.

This pic was posted on here about a yr ago. Story was, this guy caught this fish, I think it was 3.5#+ and two more over 3# on the same trip. Story never mentioned the lake just that he worked somewhere in St Louis and decided to take off to fish. Supposedly caught in early March with other spawning fish. If he was fishing around St Louis, that's the earliest spawn I've ever heard of that far north.

Real big crappie, not world record, but big! Arms extended forward, not all the way but close and camera close. Easily done illusion. JMO.

Could be shopped, but the world record is 5 lbs. ( I think) and they have a repro of it at BPS in Springfield. It's bigger than that.

I think that it was taken with a wide-angle lens, and they guy is holding the fish toward the camera, which makes it look bigger than it is. It's called "exaggerated perspective" or "forced perspective photography. Several ways to do it, depending on what you're trying to achieve, but here are a couple of examples.

Interesting. It is an absolute toad either way.

I am a photoshop expert and this photo has not been manipulated in any way.
This is a real photo with a big crappie held forward to the camera.
Weight is probably about 4 pounds tops.

world record is 6 lb's caught outside New Orleans back in the 60's.This was before they classified them as black or white crappie.Since they couldn't decide if it was a black or white crappie it was not added to the new records but it still stands as the largest ever caught.It was caught by a 4 year old girl.

+1

I am not an expert in anything but when it takes two hands to hold one up...it's a good fish. Kudos to the fisherman!!!!

Wow..almost 1000 hits on this subject. See Texas records below:

Black Crappie George Ward 3 lb. 14.72 oz. 18.5 4/27/03 Lake Fork


White Crappie G.G. Wooderson 4 lb. 9 oz. 2/14/68 Navarro Mills Lake

Next Texas record Bassthumb 7lb. 11 oz.
22.5 TBA Lake Lewisville.

CRAPPIE
BLACK CRAPPIE
IGFA WORLD RECORD BLACK CRAPPIE = 4 lb. 8 oz.

WHITE CRAPPIE
IGFA WORLD RECORD WHITE CRAPPIE = 5 lb. 3 oz.