Topeka resident Bobby Parkhurst recently made a name for himself in the Kansas fishing community by breaking a nearly 60-year-old state record for crappie. On March 5th, Parkhurst caught an enormous white crappie at Pottawatomie State Fishing Lake No. 2 in Pottawatomie County, which has been dubbed a “catch-of-a-lifetime.”
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Nadia Marji, a representative of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP), reported that the lunker catch was weighed on a certified scale and officially recorded at 4.07 pounds, breaking the previous record of 4.02 pounds set in 1964 by Frank Miller of Eureka.
Parkhurst used a crappie rod and reel with a minnow for bait to catch the crappie, which measured 18 inches long and 14 inches in girth, according to KDWP Assistant Director of Fisheries John Reinke. Reinke stated that while as a fisheries biologist he has seen many large fish, this one deserves a spot in the record books.
To qualify for the Kansas State Record, trophy catches must be caught by a licensed angler using legal means, identified by a Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks district fisheries biologist or regional fisheries supervisor, weighed on a certified scale prior to being frozen, photographed in color, and a state record application must be filled out. Additionally, there is a mandatory 30-day waiting period.
The last fishing record to be broken in Kansas occurred last year, when a Kansas woman caught a 1.46-pound perch that measured 13.66 inches in length out of a farm pond in Sherman County.
Fishing enthusiasts across the state are buzzing about Parkhurst’s impressive catch and eagerly anticipating the possibility of another record-breaking fish in the future.
Source: usangler.com