1-Pound, 8-Ounce Fish Sets White Crappie Record

[NCangler]

RALEIGH, N.C. (Aug. 27) — A Granite Falls angler has set the white crappie state record, just three months after the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission opened a new category for the fish.

Eddie Braswell reeled in the record-setting white crappie, which weighed 1 pound, 8 ounces and measured 14 inches in length, on Aug. 15 while fishing at High Rock Lake. He was using a Wally Marshall rod, Shimano 2000 reel and a Bass Assassin lure as bait.

Since he retired from the Commission in 2004, Braswell fishes for crappie approximately 70 days a year, and starting in March or April, he tries to fish at least twice a week. While he fishes Lakes Rhodhiss, Hickory and Norman from time to time, he favors the crappie fishing in High Rock Lake.

His latest catch is the biggest white crappie he has ever caught or seen, so he was anxious to get it in the boat, on ice and to certified scales to see if he had set the new record.

The fish was weighed on certified scales at Food Lion on Hickory Boulevard, in Hudson. Bob Brown, a fisheries biologist with the Commission, verified the catch.

In May, the Commission created a new white crappie state record category after separating the general crappie state record into white and black crappie. The existing crappie record, which was broken in 1980, was a 4-pound, 15-ounce black crappie caught from Asheboro City Lake #4.

To qualify for a state record, anglers must have caught the fish on a hook and line, have the fish weighed on a certified scale witnessed by one observer, have the fish positively identified by a fisheries biologist from the Commission and submit an application with a full, side-view photo of the fish.

For a list of all freshwater fish state records in North Carolina or more information on the State Record Fish Program, visit the Commission’s Web site, www.ncwildlife.org.