Nolan Sprengeler / Minnesota Fish & Wildlife
A Minnesota man set the state’s fishing record for Black Crappie back in April with a literal saucer of a fish, a 16.25″ Black Crappie, and the state’s Fish & Wildlife Department announced that he just broke his own fishing record with an even bigger fish a month later.
Nolan Sprengeler from Plymouth, Minnesota caught his first big black Crappie (or BBC for short) back in the spring. That BBC earned Nolan a spot in the state’s fishing record book, a dream for any angler, but he didn’t stop there.
A little over a month later, Sparengeler landed a big Black Crappie which measured 17.5″ long and weighed 3 pounds, 9 ounces. This bulbous black crappie looks like it swallowed a saucer the fish is so wide around at the middle.
Nolan Sprengeler / Minnesota Fish & Wildlife
Minnesota Fish & Wildlife announced that Nolan Sprengeler had set a new state fishing record for Black Crappie in a Facebook post last week which included those two photos above and a link to the state’s fishing records page.
Looking around the state’s fishing record archives, the record for rock bass feels ripe for the breaking at 2 pounds. So does the 8 pound, 15 ounce largemouth bass record. There HAS to be a 9+ pounder lurking around somewhere this Summer that an angler can get to the scales.
For any Minnesota anglers out there looking for a heavier challenge, the biggest fish ever caught in the state of Minnesota according to the record books is a 94 pound Lake Sturgeon which measured 70 inches long. The second heaviest record out there, unsurprisingly, is Muskie at 55 pounds, 14 ounces. Tiger Muskie isn’t too far behind at 34 pounds, 12 ounces.
For context, the IGFA fishing world record for Black Crappie was set in 2018 by angler Lionel Ferguson who caught a 5 pound, 7 ounce big Black Crappie while fishing Richeison Pond in Tennessee. The IGFA also maintains 6 world length records for Black Crappie with the most recent one being broken in February by angler Derek Merricks (41cm) who was fishing on the Little Creek Reservoir in Virginia.
For those who haven’t caught crappie before, they might be small but they fight hard for their size. It’s an angry fish, not too dissimilar from smallmouth bass, that puts up a fight despite being smaller than some other fish species in the pond.