Keith Lusher 02.19.26
An Iowa angler has set a brand new state document for black crappie after touchdown an enormous fish throughout a Tremendous Bowl Sunday ice fishing journey at Lake of Three Fires.
In response to the Iowa Division of Pure Sources, Micaiah Thompson of Greenfield caught a 17.8-inch black crappie weighing 3.95 kilos on February 8 on the 85-acre Lake of Three Fires in Taylor County. The fish surpasses the earlier state document of three.88 kilos, set in 2013, by seven-hundredths of a pound.
Beneath Iowa DNR tips, a brand new all-time state document should outweigh the earlier mark by a minimum of one ounce to qualify. Thompson’s fish cleared that threshold and was later confirmed and licensed by state officers.
Thompson and his fishing associate, Dan Ginn, had taken 5 youngsters from a church youth group out on the ice that afternoon. Whereas the children centered on catching bluegills, Thompson and Ginn focused walleyes utilizing jigs and minnows, together with a couple of tip-ups set close by.
The group was unfold out alongside a tapering level that dropped from 3 to 17 ft of water. Utilizing sonar, Thompson situated a deep brush pile loaded with fish and commenced jigging close to the construction as darkness fell.
“At about 6 p.m., proper earlier than we had been on the brink of depart, I noticed a good-sized fish come as much as my lure on sonar,” Thompson stated. “It missed that one, however I had one other rod down in a second gap with a inexperienced jig and minnow, and it hit that one arduous.”
Fishing with a small ice rod spooled with 10-pound braided line and a 4-pound monofilament chief, Thompson fought the fish for a couple of minute earlier than bringing it to the outlet.
“I believed it was a walleye the entire time,” he stated. “Even once I obtained it up into the outlet, we nonetheless thought it was a walleye as a result of its mouth was so huge. As soon as Dan put a flashlight on it, that’s after we realized it was a crappie.”
The anglers weighed the fish that evening on a handheld scale, which learn 4.1 kilos. As a result of it was Tremendous Bowl Sunday and most companies had been closed, they had been unable to get an official licensed weight till February 10. The fish formally weighed 3.95 kilos on an authorized scale, topping the long-standing document.
Thompson and Ginn initially tried to maintain the crappie alive in an aerated bait bucket stuffed with chilly water, however after the official weigh-in, they realized the fish wouldn’t survive and determined to maintain it.
Earlier that very same afternoon, Ginn had landed a 17.2-inch crappie, including to what was already a memorable outing.
The Iowa DNR encourages anglers who imagine they might have caught a state document fish to instantly contact their native conservation officer or fisheries biologist to make sure correct documentation, identification, and weighing on an authorized scale.
