West Point Record Slab

When Willie Arnold, of Newnan, went crappie fishing at West Point two weeks ago, he didn’t catch a mess of fish. To be exact, he only caught one fish and went home. But a white crappie like what Willie caught is worth leaving the lake to find somebody so you can show off the fish. According to records kept by GON, Willie’s crappie is the biggest crappie ever caught from West Point.

On Wednesday, the day after Valentine’s Day, Willie was fishing from the bank in the back of Whitewater Creek and was soaking a minnow about 3 feet deep under a cork. Fishing was slow. But at about 12:30 p.m., Willie cast his minnow out near the creek channel and the cork popped under the surface. The record-size fish, however, didn’t put up much of a fight.

“I had the drag set pretty tight,” said Willie, “and he just came in on his side.”

The king-sized white crappie measured 16 1/2 inches long and was bulging with eggs. On the scales at Highland Marina, the slab weighed a shopping 3-lbs., 14-ozs., the best ever from West Point.

As big as Willie’s fish it, it falls far shy of the state-record white crappie, a 5-lb. slab caught on April 10, 1984 by Theresa Kemp from a private pond in Bibb County.