Slab Crappie From Illinois Turning Southern Heads

A black crappie caught at Lake Kinkaid in Illinois earlier this week by Ryan Povolish has some Georgia slab hunters turning their heads. The slab weighed 4-lbs., 8.8-ozs. and is a pending state record for the midwestern state.

“You fish all your life just to see a fish of that caliber,” said Rusty Parker, a veteran crappie angler from Lake Blackshear.

Illinois DNR reports on their website, “Kinkaid Lake is known for producing large crappie. Crappie over 2 pounds are caught each year, and at least two 4-lb. crappie have been caught in the last four years. Blacknose crappie were first stocked in 2010. Legal-sized blacknose crappie were caught in 2013. Eighty four percent of the crappie collected during the spring 2015 survey were over the minimum 9-inch length limit.”

A picture of the black crappie was released on Xtreme Crappie Angler’s Facebook page on March 28 and went viral with more than 28,000 shares. A video of the fish was posted on YouTube by ExtremeAnglerTV.

The current black crappie record for Illinois is 4-lbs., 8-ozs, a fish caught in 1976.

Georgia’s black crappie record is shared by two anglers, Shirley Lavender and Steve Cheek. Both caught a black crappie that weighed 4-lbs., 4-ozs. Shirley’s fish came on June 1, 1971 from Acree’s Lake, while Steve caught his fish in Lake Spivey in March 1975.