New York angler lands record-shattering crappie at private lake
A New York angler has shattered the state record for white crappie by reeling a 4.42-pound crappie from the same lake that yielded the (...)
A New York angler has shattered the state record for white crappie by reeling a 4-pound, 7-ounce crappie from the same lake that yielded the previous record 20 years ago.
Roy Isaac’s Aug. 21 catch at Sleepy Hollow Lake replaces a tie involving 3.13-pound crappies caught at Sleepy Hollow Lake in 2001 and Kinderhook Lake in 2013.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation announced the new record Wednesday afternoon, stating on Facebook that Isaac’s crappie measured 19 inches and was caught on a live minnow.
Sleepy Hollow Lake is within a private residential community and Isaac, who is from Albany, told Field & Stream that he fishes at the lake regularly, with his two sons, on the invitation of a friend who owns a home in the community.
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Isaac, 62, had been catching large crappies from the same dock in recent weeks so he kept at it with the record in mind. The giant crappie struck as he slowly jigged at a depth of 25 feet.
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“All of a sudden I got a hit,” he told Field & Stream. “But then nothing really happened so I started bringing the bait up. As soon as I got it closer to the shore, the fish saw me and took off. It was a good thing I had my drag set right.”
Isaac was using an ultralight rig and a reel spooled with 4-pound-test line.
For the sake of comparison, the International Game Fish Assn. lists as the all-tackle world record a 5-pound, 3-ounce white crappie caught at Enid Dam in Mississippi in 1957.
–Image courtesy of Risa Getman