Fishing Articles

Just ask Johnston County angler John Davinson who recently broke the channel catfish state record after the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission dropped the minimum weight requirement to 10 pounds.    

Now the Commission has opened up the white crappie state record category after separating the general crappie state record into white and black crappie. The minimum weight limit to apply for the new white crappie state record is 1 pound, 8 ounces.

The current crappie record, broken in 1980 by Dean Dixon, was a 4-pound, 15-ounce black crappie caught from Asheboro City Lake #4. Corey Oakley, a Commission fisheries biologist, tracked down the mounted fish and verified that it was a black crappie.  

Discerning the differences between a white crappie and a black crappie can be tricky. Aspiring record-breakers should count the spines on the dorsal (top) fin: The black crappie has seven to eight dorsal spines, while the white crappie has only five to six.

Another good way to tell the difference between these two closely related species is to look at the fish's coloration—if the fish is marked with random spots, it's most likely a black crappie. A white crappie is marked with five to 10 vertical bars along its sides.    

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