Holy crappie! Local angler catches new Idaho state record fish

Two weeks ago, my phone buzzed with my favorite kind of message.

“Hey buddy,” texted my friend Jon. “The state record for catch-and-release white crappie is only 14 inches. Let’s go break it!”

Needless to say, I required little convincing. Getting my hands on a state record fish has been on my bucket list for a while, and with a crappie ace like Jon as a partner and a beatable record on the books, I figured we had a realistic shot. But nothing could have prepared us for the adventure that was about to unfold.

I met Jon at zero-dark-thirty and we loaded my boat with all the necessary gear for a panfish slab-hunt.

“Is it a record-breaking day?” I wondered aloud. “Let’s go find out!”

The fishing gods threw us two curveballs right off the bat. One was wind — the forecast called for almost none, but we were instead greeted by a strong, steady breeze. To make matters worse, my boat battery was dead. Without a trolling motor to fight the wind and a fish finder to mark schools of crappie, it wasn’t worth launching the boat. We continued our mission on foot.

Jon almost always fishes from the bank, so the loss of the boat was no big deal. We carefully picked our way along the rocky, snake-infested shoreline and set to work tossing crankbaits and jigs. Within minutes, Jon was on the board with a 13-inch crappie.

“They’re here!” he announced.

Within a half-hour, we had five keepers in the cooler — halfway toward our goal of 10 for the frying pan. I helped rescue one nice slab that spit Jon’s hook at the bank by blindly stabbing with the net.

“Wow, nice save!” Jon said. “That one counts as yours.”

As the action slowed, I ventured 30 yards down the shoreline to test some new waters. I caught a bass, a catfish and one more big crappie before I heard Jon’s excited, half-panicked voice.

“Jordan!” he called. “Huge fish! I need help here!”

I leaped into action, dashing across the hardscrabble lava rock as fast as I could without falling in. When I arrived, net in hand, Jon’s ultralight rod was bent with unusual force.

“Bass? Catfish?” I queried.

“I don’t think so, man. It feels like a crappie.”

The coffee-colored water kept our quarry hidden until suddenly, a dinner plate-sized silver slab breached the surface. I scooped it up and was stunned by the most enormous crappie I’ve seen in person. It was a good thing we netted it, too — Jon’s jig was deep in the crappie’s mouth, but it was hooked by the thinnest of membranes.

“Wow!” I said. “That’s a record fish if I’ve ever seen one.”

Jon’s trophy catch was a black crappie, but at 17 inches, it still topped the catch-and-release record book by a full inch. It weighed exactly three pounds — somehow still a half-pound short of the certified weight record, which has stood since 2003.

We high-fived in disbelief, snapped some pictures and took the proper measurements to ensure Jon’s catch would enter the record books. With a cooler full of 13- and 14-inch slabs — really nice crappie on any day of the week — it was crazy to see how the record breaker dwarfed them all.

With our mission accomplished, we fished until we had enough crappie for our fry and headed for home. My personal hunt for a state record continues, but I’m glad I was there to help Jon land his crappie for the ages.

Tight lines!

Jordan Rodriguez has been fishing Idaho waters since he was a teen. Share your fish stories, adventures, tips and tricks with him at tightlinesboise@gmail.com or visit www.tightlines208.com.