Kansas rescinds state-record crappie, angler doesn’t know why

Fisherman seeks answers and wants his frozen catch returned after Kansas approved it as a record, then took it away after an (...)

A fisherman who caught a huge white crappie that was approved as a state record by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks last April had his frozen trophy catch—and record—taken from him and he doesn’t know why.

Bobby Parkhurst caught a 4.07-pound white crappie from Pottawatomie State Fishing Lakes No. 2 that the KDWP recognized as topping a 59-year-old record.

A press release from April 4, 2023 stated, “After inspection and measurement by John Reinke, assistant director of Fisheries for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, the lunker catch was put on a certified scale where it was recorded as weighing 4.07 pounds – the equivalent of six cans of soup.

“As fisheries biologists, we get the chance to see a lot of big fish but this one is certainly for the books,” said Reinke. “This crappie measured in at 18 inches long and 14 inches in girth, so it truly deserves a spot on the state record list.”

But seven months later, the KDWP changed its mind, and reinstated the old record of 4.02 by Frank Miller of Eureka in 1964.

Parkhurst told KSNT 27 News that game wardens came to his home with a search warrant and seized the frozen fish. According to KDWP spokeswoman Nadia Marji, the fish was seized in connection with a “formal investigation.”

Parkhurst attempted to get answers from the KDWP but has yet to get them. Nor has he gotten his fish back.

“They didn’t tell my anything,” Parkhurst told KSNT last week. “I don’t understand why they’re doing this to me.”

A tip received by KDWP after the record was announced prompted wildlife officials to launch an investigation into the record and the review process.

“There was not an error in the verification process,” Marji told KSNT. “Rather, information supplied to the department by the angler via his written application form was not ‘true and correct.’”

Pressed for further explanation, Marji told KSNT the issue came from the listed weight of the white crappie on the form.

“The fish appeared normal and healthy, and was accurately identified by staff,” Marji said. “However, had the application been filled out accurately by the angler, it would have not qualified as a state record.”

Parkhurst insists he filled out the application properly, and added that he wants his fish returned.

“I did it the whole way they wanted me to do it,” Parkhurst told KSNT. “I went through the procedures, I wrote down what I caught it on, I did everything they wanted me to do by the book. I did everything I was supposed to do. Their biologists looked at it more than once.”

Marji told KSNT that it’s still an active case, an apparent indication that there is more to the story.

The original press release announcing the record was updated in November, stating at the top of the release: “Upon further review by KDWP officials, the crappie caught by Parkhurst could not be confirmed; therefore, the previous record for Kansas’ largest crappie still stands (Miller, 1964).”

Photos courtesy of Bobby Parkhurst and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.